Cruising with Trev

When we last left you, we were waiting for Trevor to arrive in about 2 hours. For the people coming to visit us this winter, we have advised you that you have to land in Charlotte Amalie by about 2:30 in the afternoon so you can catch the last ferry to the BVI's at approx 4:14 or 4:30. I know I'm a dinosaur but that doesn't bother me. There are these new fangled gadgets called cell phones and I have one now. Not only can you talk on one, but you can get text messages. At 4:30 we get a text message from Trevor that he is at the airport waiting for his bags. This is not good news as he'll never make the last ferry and will have to stay over in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Joan tried her real first text message & the process was slow. It would have been much easier to talk to Trevor. We waited for an hour and a half 6:00 for his next text message and he says that he's at the marina - no statement about what marina so we assume he is still in St. Thomas. A short while later we get another text (why doesn't he just call us) saying that he'll be at the boat shortly. How did he get here? Has he cleared customs? When he shows up, we have all kinds of questions about the texts. It seems his phone was delaying his text messages by about an hour. Some of the timing now makes sense.

Early the next morning we have to provision the yacht and $500.00 later we're ready to go. Of course food is very expensive here but we were also loaded down with a significant amount of alcohol of Trevor's choosing. Our first destination is Norman Island. Within a half hour, we are practicing our first Man Overboard Drill for real. No - no one fell overboard but the guy who commissioned the dinghy & motor didn't tie a very good bowline on the dinghy & it came loose. So since the dinghy represents more value than most of the vehicles I have owned, rescue is imperative. For Trev, one of the stronger memories of Norman Island will be of the Willy T. floating bar. If any of you have a floating derelict boat that would hold about 75 people, it would be a great way to make a million dollars. After snorkeling at the caves the next day, we headed off to Virgin Gorda. The caves on Norman Island are reputed to be the source for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The winds were light and we only made 3 or 4 knots speed, making Joan happy, while Trevor wondered where the promised winds were. Every time you people up north choose to have a storm so you can get more snow, the affects are felt down here. A storm system moves out into the Atlantic, creating large swells which eventually land down here. At harbour in Virgin Gorda, we rocked all night as these 10ft swells landed on the shore. These swells made it too rough to anchor off the Baths at Virgin Gorda, so we took a taxi to this National Park site. It's pretty intimidating to be standing between 30ft granite boulders and watching 10ft breaking waves come in. At one location Joan wanted her picture taken between the rocks. After the first picture, Joan decided she wanted a 2nd picture and I pointed to the incoming wave, but within seconds it struck & Joan had disappeared. Luckily the wave had pushed her upstream, between rocks & she said she didn't hit or bang anything. Remember, Joan is a weak swimmer at best. We'd been told that the North Sound in Virgin Gorda would be a good spot for Christmas as all the mega yachts would be there & possibly well decorated for Christmas. Trev finally had a sailing day as we were well heeled over with the rail almost in the water. Gear had been stored before we left, but the crash of plates resounded from below. The floor was covered with plates & bowls but the corral held up. We found that the trick is to turn the plates upside down before we go sailing so that they don't jump the shelf fiddle & force the cupboard door open. One of the visiting boats for Christmas Eve night was Sea Cloud - 350 ft long with 4 masts, the tallest being 180ft tall. They don't use white anchor lights on their mast like us little guys - they use red lights - likely to warn aircraft! This boat in its prime had a crew of 72 people and belonged to the heiress of General Foods.

The next day, we headed west under light wind conditions again. Trev is giving me a hard time about the lack of wind. We checked out the Trellis Bay anchorage and saw that you can walk to Beef Island airport from it so this may become the preferred route into the BVI's for any of our visitors. Trev has made the statement that he is never coming sailing with his parents again without a friend. It seems that the parents go to bed around 9:00 p.m. & leave him to drink by himself.

The incoming millennium was a big deal & the NY Times suggested 3 places to celebrate its coming. One of them just happened to be a beach bar in the BVI's - Foxies. Trevor has circled this location since arriving & this is where he wants to be New Year's Eve. We showed up 3 days early just to see if there was going to be a spot for us and that night at the bar, the local in-house dancer performed some amazing gymnastic type moves while retrieving his beer under tables, chairs & benches. The next day we headed out to Sandy Cay which we had already passed just for a day at the beach. Those 10ft northern swells were still coming in when I landed Joan & Trevor in the surf with the dinghy. I went back to the big boat to make sure it was securely anchored. I could see already, it wasn't going to be easy to retrieve the 2 of them from the beach. While watching from the boat, Joan is standing 50ft from the water's edge & oblivious to the incoming wave. It knocked her down, dragged her for 50ft along the beach to the water, all the time coughing & spluttering. Trev now notices his mother being dragged into the sea & comes to the rescue. Joan recovers & starts crawling back up the beach only to be overcome by another wave & drags her back down the 50ft of sand again. Trev gets her again, tries to help her up the beach again but she is too tired & exhausted and more or less has to be dragged up. I get to watch all this from 200 ft away on the big boat. They go higher up the beach & Joan dries out & recovers. Some people pay big money to have their skin exfoliated. Four hours later, Joan is still trying to get all the sand out of her hair & off her body.

We head back to Foxies as Trev wants to have a good spot. This is 2 days early & the harbour already looks half full. We've got a good spot but the boats just keep coming and all the anchoring spacing keeps getting smaller & smaller. By the time nightfall comes, I'm counting over 100 boats, some of them mega yachts & I'm glad we got our spot during the daylight as the wind is picking up. After supper & it's now dark, we determine that we are dragging anchor & try to reset it about 3 times. Apparently we are on a coral outcrop & the anchor just won't dig in. It's dark, it's windy, there are 100 boats anchored and now I have to try to find a new spot to sit for the night. We meandered in & around the boats looking for a good spot, trying several but the anchor just didn't seem to want to hold. One spot had great promise but at the last minute just seemed to give up. I told Trev to bring the anchor all the way up just to make sure it wasn't fouled with weeds or something. When it gets to the top, Trev sees about a 100lb chunk of coral wedged in the teeth of the anchor. After alot of effort, he was able to work it free & we continued our search for a good anchoring spot. Finally after 2 or 3 more tries, we finally got a place that seemed to be working. I didn't like it as we were too close to other boats, including the 150ft mega yacht beside us. We are anchored in 30ft of water & my normal choice back home would be 10 to 15ft. Because we are surrounded by mountains, the wind is not in a straight line but has a swirling activity so the boats are moving constantly. If everybody has the same amount of anchor line out, everything should work out well was my old line of thinking. That assumed all boats were about the same length. The boat's swinging arc is really its length of anchor line plus the length of the boat - so this monster beside us is going to have a great big arc compared to ours. So Trev & I decide to spend the night in the cockpit on anchor watch. Boats did approach within 10ft but we got thru the night alright & remember this is the day before New Years Eve! Since we held all night through the wind, we decided to keep the spot. The anchor should be well set now. It's enjoyable watching the mega yacht's crew serve the owner & guests. Joan is quite envious. Trev says we can get $2 beers at one place on the beach so we headed in for a few. Lots of people are strolling during the afternoon - I imagine checking out things for tonight. There is an advantage to being a guy & being able to take a pee real quick. The evening crowds resulted in women lining up 20 deep waiting their turn in the bathroom. With that brand new dinghy that I have, I was quite concerned with so many people around whether it was still going to be mine by the end of the evening. The end result was that it was no problem.

The first day of the new year, we sail off to Cane Garden Bay, supposedly one of the most picturesque beaches in the Caribbean. It was very pretty but that northern surge is still coming in. There are surfers just 100 yds behind us, enjoying the swells as they break. Joan says her beach experience was a little bit more pleasurable. With that in mind, the next day we headed over to White Beach and this one is some people's favourite. We are quite pleased with our navigation, having to go through reefs to get to both beaches. There were 2 big sea turtles playing in the entrance of the bay but Trev wasn't able to get his snorkeling equipment on fast enough. Trev is getting worried about leaving this warmth & sunshine behind and heading back to the land of snow. Winds are light so we end up motoring back into Road Town and stayed there because it is close to the ferry dock that Trev required. Because we were in an enclosed city town harbour on a hot, windless day, I plugged in the air conditioner just for the afternoon and in the evening we just used regular shore power to charge the batteries. The next day the dockage bill was $58 for dockage, $14 for 84 gallons of water & $62 for electricity!! Needless to say, we were shocked & probably won't use this marina location again. We have had an email from Trev saying that he is safely back in Toronto - definitely wishing he was back here.