Buenos Aires to Plymouth Massachusetts (Part 6)

British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

Maite and I had the pleasure of sailing in the British Virgins from May 12 until June 18 when we set sail for the Spanish Virgins, the Bahamas and Florida. We hosted my family from May 21 to May 28  aboard Calypso playing host to anywhere from three to eight people and two or three dogs. We found this a good test of Calypso's livability and feel she came through with flying colors.

I thought I would start this post by just letting the views speak for themselves. Everywhere you looked it was paradise. Enjoy.

View from the bow of Calypso in Nanny Cay Marina

Beach at Nanny Cay looking south across Francis Drake Channel at the Indians and Norman Island

Entrance to Nanny Cay Marina

Ed and Meredith enjoy dinner at Nanny Cay Pegg Leg Restaurant (very good and unusual soups)

The "boys" standing guard on Calypso while we go to have dinner 

Sunset looking west from Bitter End Yacht Club in Gorda Sound Virgin Gorda

Marina Cay and Scrub Cay

Cane Garden Bay - North shore western Tortola

A day in the salon. No it's not a Triscuit commercial!

With so many aboard, sometimes we had to fight for the best places to sit.

Looks like Tyler has found a new favorite place to sit! My butt was just barely off the deck anyway...but now?

Bitter End Yacht Club (see all the anchor lights behind)

Meredith and Ed out for a paddle

Meredith and the Boys at the Baths

Calypso enroute to Virgin Gorda

Sunset in the Gorda Sound

Calypso after a salon cleanup.

Sunset at Soper's Hole

Cousins Cassie and Meredith at Bitter End looking forward to a good meal.

Sailing north from the Baths Mainsail and Genoa

Calypso in Nanny Cay Marina

Gorda Sound Virgin Gorda

Sailing in Sir Francis Drake Channel looking north toward Tortola and Beef Islands

Cockpit in port

Sunset at Cane Garden Bay. St. Thomas is behind the three boats to the left. Jost Van Dike is behind the boat in the foreground.

Cane Garden Bay 

Cane Garden Bay Resort : Ed tying up the dinghy

We used Nanny Cay, Tortola as a home base and had numerous short trips around the islands. Nanny Cay is a great little marina two inlets southwest of Road Town, on the southern coast of Tortola geographically in the middle of the British Virgins. It had a great open air restaurant, internet, a pool, breakfast cantina, laundry, chandlery, grocery, sail loft and dive shop. Anyone renting a slip also got to use the hotel showers. For someone getting used to sailing, this is the place to go. Water is deep, anchorages are plentiful and generally well protected with minimal swell. Destinations are within visible distance no more than a few hours sail or motor away. There seemed to be resorts, bars and restaurants around every bend.

Squall coming through on
Sir Francis Drake Channel

Sir Francis Drake Channel 15 minutes later

Sir Francis Drake Channel is 6 miles wide and runs from St. Thomas in an east northeast direction along the south coast of Tortola. Swells from the east are blocked by Virgin Gorda and from the southeast by a string of islands each with its own attractions, restaurants, bars, snorkeling spots, etc. Weather was generally great, sunny and about 85 degrees although an occasional squall would come through, they were gone in a few minutes. Nights were a cool 70 or so.

Ben learning to drive. "You sure you want me to drive?
How much did this thing cost?

Ben and Captain Bly preparing to hoist the mainsail.

After the kids arrived they got instruction on boat handling under power and under sail. We motored between two large buoys in Road Town Harbor about 200 yards apart much as Jeff had done for us during the Antares University in Grenada. Maite demanded her turn too. They were to stay on the Rhumb line between the two buoys using only engines, then rotate 180 degrees and back up to the buoy before setting off for the other buoy about 200 yards away. When the current kicked up, it got a bit tricky, but they all did very well. We also went out sailing with everybody taking turns at the helm, raising lower sails and tacking and trimming the main and genoa. They got a crash course in docking, anchoring, knot tying, maneuvering in tight marinas, toilet flushing, water conservation, dinghy launching and recover...all the stuff that you have to learn to survive on a sail boat. Oh and cleaning, fixing, more cleaning, oh the drudgery! What a Captain Bly I was! They  hadn't planned on four weeks in the Virgin Islands consisting of so much work!

Ready About!

Double Dog Dinghy Duty (Poo Poo Patrol) on our way to do our business twice
 a day at the Bite. We found that three dogs was just a bit much.

We also had to train our pups on how to user the bathroom. Initially they would not go on the boat and we had to dinghy them in twice a day. Eventually they learned to go on the tramps, which were easily cleaned.

In our 5 weeks we went in order to Norman Island and the Bite, the Indians, Virgin Gorda and the Baths, Peter Island, Virgin Gorda again but this time north to the Gorda Sound and Bitter End Yacht Club, then to the Dogs, Scrub Island and Marina Island, Jost Van Dyke, then to St John and St. Thomas, back to Nanny Cay, to Salt Island to dive the Rhone, made a full circle of Tortola from Nanny Cay to Trellis Bay then around the north side to and back to Nanny Cay. Our first trip was to the Baths. Imagine a mass of granite boulders anywhere from a few meters to 20 meters in diameter, thrown like marbles onto a beach and you have the Baths. Paths through the boulders have been set up with ladders and ropes to help you through, while the surf come in partially filling the caverns between. Snorkeling and was hard to beat but unfortunately the area is exposed and only day mooring is permitted.

Dropping anchor at the Baths (south end of Virgin Gorda)

Ladies at the Bitter End

Bitter End Yacht Club in Gorda Sound

We then motored north past Spanish Town and into Virgin Gorda Sound and to the Bitter End Yacht Club. What a beautiful place. The combination of the sunset, the anchor lights of all the boats and the stars next to the open fires and grass huts was a vision of paradise.

Tyler's gone AWOL

The next morning we started out the the sound and my Golden, Tyler bolted. He decided he was going for a swim, so we had an impromptu DOB drill several miles off shore. He got about a hundred yards away before we reversed course. When he finally made it back aboard he was pretty tired.

Tyler after his swim in the Gorda Sound
back to his preferred post at the helm

After giving the cousins an introduction to scuba, we dove the Indians off the cost of Norman Island. These provided a nice quiet dive to about 40 feet with some impressive rock formations and fish life. The bite and Norman Island sitting just a quarter mile off from the Indians is the island made famous by Robert Louis Stevensons "Treasure Island". As a last dive of the trip we dove the wreck of the Rhone, a 19th century sail/steam mail freighter that was thrown on the rocks by a hurricane in the late 1850s. There was a dinghy line to secure you dinghy so that you can dive the wreck. As it is on the western end of Salt Island it can get a swell going and quite a bit of current near the bow of the wreck so be careful. The wreck sits with its props in about 20 feet of water, and the bow section in about 70 feet of water oriented 90 degrees to the stern section.

One our last outings was to the Pusser's restaurant on Marina Cay. The video above gives a bit of the flavor of the place. It sits just south of Scrub Island, a few miles northeast of Trellis Bay. Trellis Bay is on the northeast side of Tortola directly north of the airport.

Meredith and Tucker heading home.

 All good things must come to an end and near the end of May Meredith had to head home and my family from California had returned to their lives. Ben, Maite and I spent a week or so getting the boat ready for our passage to Stuart, Florida. Warranty work was completed as much as was likely to be completed, and we left on June 11th to pick up Martin at the Tortola airport. We spent the night at Soper's Hole, had a fine dinner there, cleared Customs and the next morning we departed for Culebra, Puerto Rico, Exumas and Florida.