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 11 - Saturday, Jan 20, The Bight, Norman Island

We had a normal start to our last full day. We had breakfast aboard and did the obligatory nothing for awhile. The winds were light and the temperature warm.

Eventually, we dropped the mooring and headed northeast around Cooper Island. We decided to go around Ginger Island through Round Rock channel, then down the south side of all the islands to Norman. This was outside the protected Sir Francis Drake Channel, but with the winds north of east, we were still largely in protected waters. It was an easy sail, 5-10 knots winds the whole way downwind.

We did another long stretch of wing-on-wing. Only one accidental jibe, but we won't mention any names. On the south side of Norman Island, we saw Norman's Mt. Rushmore ("the nose"). It looked like a whole head to us, but they just call it "the nose". We had lunch along the way since the sea was so smooth.

After a great sail, we dropped sails and motored once again into The Bight 2:15 p.m. and picked up another mooring ball near Willie T's. We were closer than we liked, but it was close to the bar and we'd decided to have dinner there our last night. Of course, more snorkeling and lounging was required. This is the BVI, after all.

Since this was Saturday, a day when a good percentage of charters go out, we were treated to a show of many boats coming in to moor, or to just tie up to Willie T's for cocktails. It seems the locals with the cigarette boats buzz over from Tortola to cocktail.

Late-afternoon, we hopped over to Willie T's for a cocktail and to make dinner reservations. After listening to music and "people watching" with the hot boats and locals hanging out, we went back to the boat. Butch and Lynn snorkeled along the shore of the bay.

Around 7:00, we headed back over to the floating bar/restaurant and had dinner. It was getting busy, and they ran out of "specials". But you can't ever get too excited about planning in the BVI. You just roll with whatever is dealt.

Speaking of dealing, after dinner we returned to the boat for the match, winner take all game of Phase 10. In a close battle, with the boys clever, combined strategy, Mike pulled out a win and the Boys took home the trophy - Boys 4, Girls 3! Of course, the Boys were perfect gentlemen, and no raucous cheering, high-fiving, or other displays of glee ensued. [And guess who wrote this part of the story?-K]

This being our last night aboard, we started packing and inventorying the lockers. All good things must come to an end, and we relished our last hours aboard.

And yes, Butch declared again that "it really can't get any better than this!"

Day 12 - Sunday, Jan 21, Road Town, Tortola

We all slept in, even though it was our last day. The anchorage was quiet and smooth, so we all had a good night's sleep. That was a nice finish to the trip after all the rolly nights.

We worked on packing a bit more, and finally left the anchorage around 10:30. We had a GREAT close reach back to Road Town. We averaged 6.5 to 7 knots of boat speed. We had to motor sail the last 20 minutes to make our noon deadline to be back at the Moorings base. Along the way, a commercial photographer came along in a dinghy and took several pictures of us.

We arrived exactly on time at noon. In true Tradewinds style, we made the best docking of the day according to the dockhands. They see a lot of crazy antics at their marina.

As we approached our slip, a Moorings boat seat cushion was floating in the water. It was just at the point where we turned to head into our slip. We snagged the cushion with a boat hook and, with Butch at the helm, we made a perfect approach to the dock, stopping the boat just right and handing the lines to the dockhands. No high revs, screeching to the dock, Captain Ron style arrival. The dockhands were impressed.

We had lunch aboard to use up remaining provisions. We put together a very comprehensive squawk list. During our post-cruise debriefing, the Mooring representative was embarrassed that we found so many things to write up, but most of them were small items.

While Butch was showing them what needed work, Mike and Kelli took their baggage across the bay in the dinghy to their hotel, the Village Cay Marina Hotel. By water was the easiest, fastest way to get there. They dropped their bags off so they could check in later.

Mike and Kelli buzzed back across the bay to finish the check-in of the boat. All of us then showered at Moorings.

Goodbye Moornings...

Since Butch and Lynn had several hours before their flight home. We decided to take a taxi to Skyworld for the view. Skyworld is a restaurant on the top of one of the "mountains" of Tortola. The view is spectacular, and it was impressive to see where we'd been from that perspective. You can see most of the islands from there. While we were there, we were inundated with cruise ship tours. Apparently, this is a standard shore excursion locale.

Eventually we called for a taxi to head back down. Butch and Lynn dropped us at our hotel and returned to Moorings to catch their shuttle to the airport. We parted much closer friends and willing to do it all again. Not bad for four people confined to a sailboat for a week and a half!

Mike and Kelli had cocktails in the hotel room since we had leftover rum and coke. Then we enjoyed dinner downstairs at the hotel dockside restaurant. The food was quite good.

Views from our hotel room...

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