BVI 2020 Day 08 Back to the Bite

The carbon using coffee maker started a little before 08:00.

By 09:30, we retrieved our 2ndary anchor and rode from shore and raised the still double reefed main in the bay.

We sailed across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Tortola.

We dropped the sails in the harbour.
Hans and I jumped in the dinghy with some garbage and went to the Conch Charter base to drop it off and get some ice.  In the meantime Firebolt just motored around the harbour.

Circle is where we dropped the sails
Triangle is were we dingyed ashore
Star is where the Conch Charters base is

It happened very quickly, and we were raising the sails again to head to Norman Island.

Pretty easy sail with the wind on the beam.
We could have shook the reef out, but we were sailing along comfortably at 7 knots.

Trip Odometer: 11.70 miles
Moving Average: 5.3 knots
Max Speed: 9.4 knots
Moving Time: 02:12:00

We got a ball real close to shore in the The Bite bay.
Great for swimming and snorkling.

In the late afternoon, we headed over The Bite with a cooler full of beer and wine.
We checked out the gift shop.
We waded in the water talking to various people who were over from the cruise ships.

The boys wanted to goto Willy Ts, but the ladies made a decision to stay for dinner at the Bite restaurant.

Delicious meal and some dancing afterward to a solo guy on guitar.

We were back to the boat by 21:00 and enjoyed some Big Black Dick

Big Black Dick has aroused the curiosity of everyone and that’s why it has become one of the best selling rums in the Caribbean.

Made from a secret recipe, Big Black Dick premium rum is a lavish treat with an aura of mystery sure to please everyone. Some have described it as stiff, yet tasty!

A really nice dark chocolate liquor distilled from molasis.

"It is believed that Big Black Dick was born of 'Royal' African parentage before being kidnapped by French slavers who gave him the name of "Richard Le Noir". Unable to subdue his efforts to regain his freedom, his French captors, tossed Richard overboard near a Caribbean island, which may have been Grand Cayman Island.

Miraculously reaching land, he served for several years labouring in a sugar cane field where he learned the secrets of how to turn the sugar cane into the Caribbean's finest rum. His kindly Caymanian master recognizing his hard work and honesty awarded him his freedom in the early 1700's.

A free man and a skilled seaman, Dick tossed away his French name and became known as Big Black Dick. He soon earned the rank of captain of a three-masted-square rigger named "Caymanus". She was a ship carrying 20 cannons with a crew of near 200 men that were known as the best in the Caribbean. After a successful career, Big Black Dick retired to a more peaceful venture of making the best original pirate rum in the Caribbean."

We noticed that the batteries were down to 12.2v, so we started the genset and ran it for 20 mins, bringing the voltage back up to 12.9

BVI 2020 Day 07 Little Harbour Peter Island

We were awoken to the familiar sound of the diesel electric coffee maker at 07:30.

Rita and I made a grilled cheese breakfast.

Today we were going to stay put in this bay.

Here is an interesting history of Peter Island and Little Harbour:

Peter Island British Virgin Islands

By 09:00 everyone was in the water for swim or a snorkle.
Saw some turtles munching on the seagrass on the sandy bottom.
We took turns going out on the paddle boards in the protected bay.

You can see how protected this harbour is:

That is Toad Town Tortola in the background

That blue hulled 100ft superyacht we saw off Virgin Gorda yesterday was anchored in the bay with us.

Judy did some Googling:

https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-49744/crossbow.htm

I would expect a 104ft charter for $62k USD a week to include an inflatable flamingo.
The crew was towing guests with the tender around the harbour!

We watched them go out for a sail and come back in a couple of hours later.

They left the flamingo and their stern lines attached to the shore.

Around 13:00, a couple of large catamarans hoisted anchors and left, so we moved Firebolt over to the south shore.  Hans and I loaded up the 2ndary anchor and rode into the dingy and deployed it on shore

Great place to anchor

Just look at the colour of the water!

There were several goats roaming the shore.

Lunch was lobster mac & cheese, bean salad, and coleslaw that we prepared.

The rest of the afternoon and night was pretty chill (repeat of above).

Wallter and Colleen's feet

BVI 2020 Day 06 SpanishTown & The Baths

WALTER WAS NOT THE FIRST UP

I started the diesel electric coffee maker at 07:30.

For breakfast, I made some bacon/egg breakfast wraps.

Nice sunny day with some clouds and storm cells in the distance.
We left the ball around  9am.

We motored out of the channel, then hoisted the double reefed main and full jib.
Wind was still 15-20 knots from the NE.

Broad reach to our destination Spanish Town (wind angle 135 degrees).

You can see where we raised the sails:

We turned the motors off, and were clipping along around 6 knots pretty comfortably.

Walter noticed that an indicator light kept coming on at the helm station.

This light indicated when the bilge pump is coming on.

Hmmm, did we have a leak?

I went below and checked the hulls during my daily holding tank dump.

Nothing.

When I lifted the starboard engine hatch, there was oil sprayed all over the engine compartment.

The oil fill cap had come off, and there was oil in the bilge.

I guess during the pounding yesterday, it shook loose.

This is what was making the bilge pump come on.

I cleaned up most of the mess with paper towels.

I checked the oil level, and it was only down to the lower line of the indicator.

Couldn't find the cap, and it was a little wavy to be crawling around in the engine compartment.

As we got closer to SpanishTown to the lee of Virgin Gorda, the waves calmed down, and I found the oil cap, added some oil, and cleaned up what I could.  No issues with the motor.

The engine compartment will need an extensive cleaning by Conch for the next charter.

As we neared Virgin Gorda, a 100ft blue hulled monohull passed in front of us as they were hoisting an huge asymmetric spinnaker.  Beautiful boat, sorry I didn't get a picture of it.

A couple miles later, we watched them gybe the spinnaker and head back towards SpanishTown.

Man they were flying along!

A storm cell came though and we watch them disappear into it.

A while later, they emerged out the other side sans spinnaker.

Very consistent winds, it was an easy sail.

We sailed the entire way.

Trip Odometer: 10.30 mikes

Moving Average: 5.4 knots

Max Speed: 10.9 knots

Moving Time: 03:24:00

We went right to the fuel dock at the marina there.

We filled up with water (150 gal $20)

We filed up diesel 6.5 gal starboard and 2.0 gal port.

The generator runs off the starboard tank.

Walter did a great job manouvering the boat with the help/direction of the marina crew.

We moved Firebolt over to a slip for the afternoon (cost us $20).

The fuel dock is right by "ACTIVE", and you can see the slip we took by the wall.

Every trip the BVI should include a visit to The Baths.

Normally, we have anchored out by them, and dingyed in for the adventure.

However, they don't allow dingys on the beach anymore: you have to moor out on a ball and swim in

Two of our crew had injuries:

Hans broken a bone in his hand a week before the trip and was wearing a wrist brace.

Don injured his hand maybe in Sint Maarten and was wearing a splint.

So both of them couldn't risk getting in/out of the dingy.

Plus the NE winds we have had meant that there was 4-6ft swells coming through there.

We decided to take a taxi from SpanishTown to The Baths.

It was neat to see the town and the country side.

The taxi cost us $6 each return.

Well worth it.

The Baths are a magical place and is a must stop when in the BVI.

Local companies offer boat rides to here from the cruise ships.

A guy I play hockey with went the USVI (St Thomas), and went on a day trip The Baths.

Interesting that you have to pay to go into the Baths National Park.
Because we are cruising, we had to have a cruising permit, which gave us free entry to the park.

We all had a drink at the bar in the bay, then headed back to the taxi.

We had the taxi stop at the local RiteWay market for us to pickup some fresh food and wine.

At around 15:30, we loaded back in Firebolt and cast off; destination Peter Island.

Winds had dropped down to 10 knots, and we needed to cover the 12+ miles to Peter Island to anchor before dark.  So we just motor sailed with the main up.

We arrived in Little Harbour on Peter Island at 18:00.

Trip Odometer: 13.50 miles
Moving Average: 6.0 knots
Max Speed: 11.7 knots
Moving Time: 02:15:00

As a crew, we had never anchored a 48ft catamaran before.
Individually, we have all anchored our respective boats HUNDREDS of times.
In Little Harbour, you pretty much have to use two anchors:
One to the middle of the bay (main anchor)
One tied off to shore (2ndary anchor).

This way you control the swing of the boat and many more boats can pack into the harbour without the risk of touching each on when the wind shifts.

We did great job anchoring:

...the first time!

We anchored close to the "Little" above.
However, we were too far away from the north shore to run a line to shore (not enough line).
Plus our main anchor was crossing the another chain of another boat that was there.

We hauled the anchor up, and dropped it again close to the "Town" above.
Hans and I loaded the 2ndary anchor and 200ft of rode into the dingy and headed to shore

:

We went close to shore and deployed the anchor:

SPLASH of the anchor deploying

We then dingyed back to the boat with the rode.

We were pleased with our efforts, BUT we had drifted too close to the next boat.
Back in the dingy to retrieve the 2ndary anchor, and up with the primary anchor.

We dropped the anchor for the last time at the "Spanish" above.
We were far enough out, that we didn't have to bother with the 2ndary anchor.
We would not swing into anyone.

That blue hulled boat is the 100 footer we saw sailing earlier

It took us over an hour to properly anchor the boat.

At 20:00 we had a really nice pasta shrimp salad for dinner.

Twas a long day, a great day!

BVI 2020 Day 05 Anegada

06:50 the diesel electric coffee machine started.

We had a quick breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and yogurt.

We dropped the ball at 07:55, headed for Anegada.

We motored out of North Sound, and hoisted the main with a double reef from yesterday:

Yellow is where we hoisted the main

Winds were again up to 20 knots constant from the NE with gusts much higher.
Unusual to see winds from the NE; the point of sail was a close reach.

We let out about half of the jib and were buffeting towards Anegada @ 7 knots fairly comfortably.
There were a couple of catamans who left at the same time as us and hoisted full main sails.
After about ten minutes, they were turning around and putting a reef or two in.

We did a good job managing the sails on Firebolt.
With our double reef, we blew by a private 50ft cat that was struggling with a full main in the puffs.

There were several storm cells that came through in front of us, and at one point we saw 34 knots of breeze.  Steady a she goes!  We did get pelted by rain a couple of times.

The wind was up and the waves were between 6-8 ft.
The motion of the catamaran is terrible in these conditions.
One hull would be up on the crest of a wave, and the other in the trough, then switcharoo.
Noboby was sick, but I did feel a little queasy; butterflies in the stomach.

Trip Odometer: 14.80 miles
Moving Avg: 6.7 knots
Max Speed: 12.0 knots
Moving Time: 02:12:00

Hans and I had two fishing lines out the whole way.
I got one hit: saw the rod bend violently, then nothing.
The knot had let go on the leader.
Think I might have not had the drag on the reel set properly.

Anegada is surrounded by several reefs.
You have to follow the channel markers going in or risk running aground.
We dropped the sails well out before the channel (yellow below)

Anything to the right of our track is 2-3ft deep.
We were warned about this in the Conch Charter briefing.

We arrive in Anegada at 10:28... that was QUICK

We took a ball close to the harbour in 7ft of water.

Another rainbow FFS, Kim

Conch also warned us about going into the harbour as the sand has been shifting a LOT.
We watched a Moorings monohull motor in front of us and run aground.
They just dropped their anchor and backed up as if nothing happened!

We saw another 45ft Moorings monohull drop a ball beside us, and motor around the boats behind us.  There was a big commotion.  They had ran over a mooring ball and snagged its line on the keel/rudder/prop.

Walter and I went to investigate:

A Moorings service dingy (60hp on the back) had come and pulled a line to another ball, and had drivers in the water.

Turns out the line from the ball was jammed between the hull and the rudder and had wrapped around the rudder shaft.  They cut the mooring ball line to free the boat that was now attached to the other ball.  Shortly after they continued on their way.

Sometimes you watch a show, sometimes you are the show.

We relaxed for the afternoon.
Swimming
Reading
We had lunch
We had a drink
Might have even had a snooze
It rained a little.
The wind blew
The sun came out

Some of us went ashore to check the island out.
Not much there.
We made a reservation for lobster dinner on the beach.

As the sun was going down...

...we headed over to shore for dinner.

Dinghy dock

Everyone had Anegada lobster.
Caribbean lobster don't have claws.
They were awesome.

Before we ordered ANOTHER storm cell came though.
MAJOR rain and wind, but no rainbow!

We were able to move to a covered table in the restaurant.
You can see the table by Walter's head.

Fire on the beach