Table of Contents Page 1 - Getting there, Day 2 Page 2 - Days 3-4 Page 3 - Days 5-6 Page 4 - Days 7-8 Page 5 - Days 9-10 Page 6 - Days 11-12 Page 7 - Epilog   (Click on any picture for enlargement.)

Day 7 - Tuesday, Jan 16, Little Harbor, Jost van Dyke

Another rolly and warm windy night. Our boat really moves around at anchor. Mike was up early at 7:15. Butch and Lynn got up a little later and went ashore to get an update on going to Anegada at the 8:30 briefing. Shortly after they left, a squall blew through, heavier rain than most of the showers we'd had.

Mike and Kelli stayed aboard for breakfast and to straighten up. Butch and Lynn came back and reported that the weather briefing didn't look good for a trip to Anegada. We decided to skip Anegada this trip, saving it for a return visit to the BVI.

So after talking about our alternatives, we decided to head out. If the seas and wind were obnoxious for a downwind run to Jost van Dyke, we'd turn down the Sir Francis Drake channel.

Before heading out, we motored over to the Moorings dock to drop of garbage and get the BBQ mount fixed...

Leaving the dock at 12:30, we put up the main leaving the Gorda Sound channel leaving the single reef in that had been in since we left Jost van Dyke on Saturday. We saw several large turtles in the channel as we left the harbor.

After making the turn west, we put up the jib, reefed. It wasn't too bad so we decided to make the long run north of Tortola to JVD.

The winds were 15-20 knots with 2-3 foot swells from the Northeast...

We sailed for about 3.5 hours, at least half of which was wing on wing. It was a nice sail, no showers, a little rolly, but quite a bit of fun. Running that long wing on wing without a preventer was a challenge, but no accidental jibes.

Everyone took turns at the helm. We saw 8 knots of speed at times...

We picked up a mooring in Little Harbor at 4:00 p.m. The wind was still blowing. There weren't any buoys marking the entrance to the harbor as noted in the guide. Two mooring balls were still available.

On the ball that we wanted there was no pennant, so we put out a double line. That turned out to be a good idea since one line had chafed considerably by the next morning.

While relaxing, we decided to get the card game in before dinner. Mike won, making it Boys 3, Girls 2. We went ashore for dinner at Harris' at 7:00. Lynn had lobster and liked it, but the rest of us agreed the food was so-so. Shopped at Sydney's Peace and Love for obligatory t-shirts, and so on. We had off and on rain showers.

We had been noticing considerable fresh water in the bilge, including the engine space. We bailed it out once, but then it had filled again. After dinner, the fresh water pump would not shut off, so we did a more serious investigation. The stern shower had a broken fitting on the supply side, and water gushed out when the pump ran.

Butch and Mike worked on it and Butch was able to put a screw into the hose fitting and plug it. We thought we had solved the problem, though we had pumped several gallons of our fresh water supply into the bilge. During this evolution, the primary fresh water pump died, so we switched to the backup.

That night, Little Harbor was taking a swell and with the wind, it was a rolly night. Perseverance put on a few more sea miles "sailing" back and forth behind the mooring ball. No one slept very well.

Day 8 - Wednesday, Jan 17, Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

All of us were up by 8. We decided to go earlier today and we left between 9:30 and 10. One of the mooring lines had nearly chafed through. Always remember to pay attention to chafing.

It was an easy sail across to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola. We remained single-reefed on a close haul with 10-15 knots of wind and swells 1-3 feet. Still reefed..., and it took a couple tacks to make the channel into the bay.

Cane Garden Bay...

Looking back at Jost Van Dyke...

We picked up a mooring. We tried calling Moorings for a repair on the VHF, but got no response. We called them on a cell phone, which worked fine. We reported the broken water line, and the leaky bilge pump. They sent a guy by car over to meet us. It took him fifteen minutes to drive over from Road Town. It took us a week to get there!

Kelli also got a couple of calls into our house contractor and water system vendor about work to be done this week.

While we were waiting we had a cold cuts lunch.

The tech Roy arrived and Mike picked him up at the dinghy dock and dropped Kelli off to explore. Roy replaced the shower fixture on the transom, but it still had a drip when he was done. He replaced the bilge pump. Butch, Lynn, and Mike dropped Roy off at another boat needing service and then went ashore to find Kelli.

We met up with her and wandered along the beach road. We checked out the T-shirt and trinket stores. It turns out that when the frequent cruise ships stop at Road Town, the passengers taking land tours are driven over the mountain to Cane Garden Bay on their tour, so there are a few touristy junk stands.

The harbor view from the beach...

Kelli had found the old rum distillery--Callwood Family. The distillery has been making rum for more than 200 years. We went there and it was open. It claims to be the oldest one in the Caribbean. Calvin runs it.

Then we continued our walk west to the end of the beach where we stopped for a cocktail. We watched the pelicans diving on the fish.

We wandered back to the dink and returned to the boat about 4:00 p.m. Kelli and Mike decided to take the kayak out for a spin around the bay. Kelli tried some more underwater pictures by just sticking the camera into the water from the kayak.

On the way back to the boat, they watch local fishermen net fishing...

When they returned, the guy collecting mooring fees was arriving. Butch and Lynn decided to take the dink to shore and go snorkeling. While they were gone Kelli started dinner aboard. Mike got the charcoal going. When Butch and Lynn returned, we had dinner. Then on to cards. Kelli won. Boys 3 Girls 3.

Very windy night, lots of swinging. One problem was that we forgot to move the dingy away from the boat before going to bed. Soon it banged on the boat and we got up out of bed and were fighting the dinghy against the wind.

Go to Page 5 ----->