Lyn's Log, 3rd January 2007
British Virgin Islands
Tortola, BVI.
N18ş25', W64ş37'
11,652 miles.
Philipsburg, St Maarten, is as unpleasant a town as we have visited, and we did not linger long. The French side of St Martin, which we saw on our previous visit, was much more attractive. The only thing worth mentioning was that next to us was anchored a little wooden cargo vessel from Dominica, making a living buying and selling fruit and vegetables across the islands. But they had found no buyers in St Maarten. They sold us a small mountain of grapefruit, plantains, bananas, oranges, eddoes and yams for the modest amount I offered. Andrew was so pleased he took over some beers for the crew for Christmas.
It was an fast sail to BVI and we arrived before dawn. Unwilling to risk the reefs through the entrance at Round Island, I hove to outside for an hour until daylight, as did a cargo ship, and shortly after anchored in Road Town, Tortola. The wind was strong and gusty and the sea was just too choppy for us to consider rowing ashore, so we lifted the anchor again and resigned ourselves to staying a night in the expensive marina. It was not quite as expensive as we remembered but showers, water and electricity were all extras. We found out that our one unit of electricity priced at forty cents, had a minimum charge of ten dollars! Virgin Islands marinas are really for the superyachts, of which there are many. But there was a free wifi with good connection and a chandlers and supermarket within easy walking distance. We emailed a few people a happy Christmas including the couple we met several times between Portugal and the Canaries, and immediately got a reply that they were only five miles away! They had spent the hurricane season in Maine while we were in Trinidad and it was great to meet up with them again the next day. Along the street we took to the supermarket there were many Christmas decorations. There were fairy lights in the shrubs and trees and many inflated plastic Father Christmases, snowmen, and Winnie the Pooh caricatures. There were also several versions of the global snow scenes you can shake and make the snow fall. These were also made of inflated plastic with polystyrene snow permanently falling, powered by a small motor. All these things had to be well tethered to the ground. It all seemed quite strange in this sunny Caribbean island.
We sailed with David and Hazel to Jost Van Dyke and the bay with ‘Foxys’ at one end. We had a great time there Christmas Eve eating at one beach restaurant and then drinking and dancing in the sand under the palms at the famous Foxys until nearly midnight.
Christmas morning we had our presents from each other and cooked our chicken with an orange, followed by Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. The vegetables were not so traditional being eddoes and christophenes (the only veg I had). We drank the local festive drink of sorrel juice, as we had had enough alcohol the previous night. Then, with Dave and Hazel and their guests, Hazel’s sister and her son, we went round to the next palm fringed bay to snorkel around the coral reefs from a white sand beach with crystal clear water. We returned to our yacht for champagne all round and brought out the rum cake that Sandra had given us in Trinidad, to find it was thoroughly mouldy and had to be thrown. What a disappointment. I was told it would keep but there was a lot of moisture around it and there was no way to save any of it. But there was still the shortbread and mincemeat slice I had made. It was a pretty good Christmas.
The next day we sailed to Norman Bay and I snorkelled around the caves. The next day we snorkelled around the Indians, a group of rocks surrounded by fabulous corals and fish, and then sailed to a bay beside the famous Baths off Virgin Gorda. It was an excellent sail and another wonderful day. In the morning we swam to the Baths and walked the trail through the granite boulders and then snorkelled back around the rocks. It was also an excellent place to see some wonderful coral and colourful fish. In the afternoon we sailed over to Trellis Bay at the northern end of Tortola where David and Hazel had anchored and seen their guests off at the airport. The bay was lovely but full of mooring buoys. We were pleased to find one vacant buoy as we appeared to have trouble with our oil pressure. We had a pleasant early evening drinking with Hazel and David in the beach bars and using the free wifi.
The following day was spent changing the oil and the oil filter and looking at the pressure sensor. It took most of the day and a lot of oil had to be cleaned up. Then we tried to phone a power and parts company for their advice. All the seven public phones we found on the beach and at the airport were not working but the kind lady in the information kiosk let us use her mobile phone. The guy advised us that the problem was probably not the inaccessible pressure valve in the oil sump but more likely the sensor or gauge. We arranged to visit their premises the next day, Saturday. In the evening we booked to eat at another well-known restaurant in these islands, The Last Resort. Just as it was time to leave the yacht, another squall came through with a lot of rain. We waited till it abated and rowed to the restaurant’s pontoon, but it rained again before we were tied up and my shorts and Andrew’s trousers were quite wet when we arrived. We were shown our table and had to dry off the chairs which, although inside the building, had still managed to get wet. Soon we had our drink but waited an hour for the starters and another three quarters of an hour for our steaks. Andrew was so uncomfortable and fed up with waiting he almost walked out which was a real shame as the steaks were excellent. The bill came with a couple of minor errors and the service charge included, so we ignored the errors but refused to pay the service charge as the service was so bad.
Saturday we sailed round to Road Town’s marina again and got a collective taxi to the Power & Parts shop. They were very helpful and we went away with a new sensor and a few oil filters. We fitted the new sensor but were not sure that it had solved the problem.
Late Saturday night an extremely loud disco started up beside the marina and continued until one thirty in the morning, despite some strong winds and rain. Somehow I eventually fell asleep but Andrew found he could connect the computer to the wifi and sorted a few things. In the morning we braved the cold water in the marina’s small swimming pool, did a little more emailing, filled our tanks with water and left at lunch time. After Foxy’s, The Last Resort was the best place to go as there would be partying and a fireworks display. We tacked back up the island to Trellis Bay, arriving around three thirty, to find the whole bay already stuffed full of yachts. We managed to speak briefly to David and Hazel again, but after about ten abortive attempts to anchor in enough space, we gave up and had to anchor in another bay around a headland. So the year ended as it began with just the two of us, but there was plenty of choice as what to drink and eat and party poppers to pull. After watching a video we searched for something jolly on the radio but the best we could come up with was Metal Mickey and his weather forecast! We counted down the last seconds to our midnight. The people on another yacht in the bay called out ‘Happy New Year’ and we returned the shout. We heard the bangs of the fireworks over the hill, but saw nothing. The party poppers spread their streamers over the yacht, the New Year kiss was had, the drink drunk, so we went to bed and had a peaceful night.
The bay we were in was edged with rocks and some lovely corals. Some other yachts came and anchored in the bay and soon there were quite a few people snorkelling. There was a huge shoal of tiny fish, two to three inches long like sprats, all along the same area that we wanted to swim, so dense we could barely see, but they moved just out of reach as we swam through. Then occasionally we would see a large fish cruising along the outer edge of this shoal. A couple of pelicans were having a great time diving into the fish-full waters.
At lunchtime on New Year's Day we returned to Trellis Bay and Dave and Hazel joined us for lunch. We also met up again for dinner and relax in their hammocks, chatting till well after eleven. We said our farewells then as we were going our separate ways in the next day or two. They were expecting their first baby in three months and were working out whether it would be a good idea to have it in the BVI’s or St Martin. They had no health insurance, so another possibility was to fly back to England. All options could result in spending a lot of money. We wished them well.
Tuesday we left Trellis Bay quite early, sailed down to Road Town Bay and anchored so that Andrew could return to Power & Parts, where he bought a manual gauge which could show the oil pressure directly. Then we moored in the marina for a couple of hours so that we could clear out with Customs and do the laundry. Then we left for the West End of Tortola, Soper’s Hole, and anchored for the night ready to hop across to the US Virgin Islands the next morning.