If you read many tales of long-term cruising sailors, eventually you run across a time in their travels where they discovered an urgent need to change gears. By this I mean getting off the boat for awhile or inviting friends onboard — something to mix up the experience a little. We did both of these this past week. Three wonderful friends of mine from Bedford flew down here for a four day weekend of sailing while Karen and the boys got to stay at a beach resort on Tortola. For the guys, this was the second installment of the winter respite concept, having tested the idea out with much success in Key West, FL last February.
So, with bags in hand and eyes agleam, the guys — Steve, Matt and Don — walked off the plane and made the 5 minute stroll to the dinghy dock at Trellis Bay for a little fun in the sun. They made me promise to make sure they were prominently displayed on the website, so we’ll kick things off with a few profiles!
Steve:A banker by trade, as evidenced by his extensive TD Bank North wardrobe of caps, towels, shirts, and probably a couple pairs of underwear. When he’s not funding yet another commercial venture in New England, he can be found screaming like a maniac cheering on his favorite team, like the New England Patriots (see shirt for proof) and the Red Sox. We also had to put up with his continual gloating over the Pittsburgh Steelers win. Despite the fact that he snores like a tsunami, Steve keeps us laughing with his good humor and his zest for adventure.
Matt:Together with his charming wife Michelle, Matt is a native New Hampshirian, yet is our most well-traveled friend. Retiring earlier in life then most, Matt used to run a wireless security/surveillance company, and his phone never stopped ringing after 9/11. He sold the company and is doing what we would all do if given the chance — get out an enjoy life to the fullest everyday! As you can imagine, he was the only one with a GSM phone onboard, and he graciously provided nightly communications support to the various spouses back home. Matt’s many hours on the water came in handy during our frequent navigating and anchoring moments. Matt, with his superior electronics background, provided us with the official team digital camera, without which, you’d have to put up with just my writing and your imagination on what it looked like!
Don:When not belaying the fears of Bedford parents as one of the town’s most upstanding pediatrician (This statement has not been cleared by his lawyer), Don tears it up on the tennis court and impresses the women-folk with his finely crafted Tilley hat (This statement has not been cleared by his lawyer). This was Don’s first adventure on a sailboat bigger than the one commonly found in his bath tub (This statement has not been cleared by his lawyer). However, he weathered the seas as well as any scalawag would. We successfully diverted his attention away from the card game Hearts, so that he wouldn’t blow us out of the water like last year. Now, would someone wake up his lawyer so that I can get this statement approved??!
Missing in action this year where Dave and Pete, who I’m sure had some plausible excuse at the time for why they could not join a bunch of guys for sun and sailing in the Caribbean in January, but I can’t exactly remember now what that excuse was! They were sorely missed and we hope they had a good time doing whatever they were doing while we snorkeled, splashed and sipped our way through the BVI’s. Dave requested that we honor his wishes by drinking only orange juice, and I’m pretty sure we abided by this – at least in spirit!
Well, on with our tale of a guys weekend in the BVI’s. We started out the adventure in Trellis Bay, dining at the Last Resort. This is an island that is just big enough for the restaurant, a dinghy dock and a once touristy donkey. The donkey since swam away or maybe was shoo’ed away, as the restaurant has turned more upscale. We took in one of many fine meals here, and the highlight of the evening was when the band started a ‘name-that-tune’ type rendition and Steve won a moment, however brief, of glory on the stage under the big spotlights!
From the get-go, the guys told me they really wanted to make sure they got some sailing in while they were here. They would refuse to put up with me turning Thalia into a powerboat for the weekend. So, off we sailed from Trellis Bay on a gentle breeze to Jost Van Dyke. We made a lunch time stop at Monkey Point on Guana Island for a snorkeling debut.
Matt was the most insistent that we do a lot of sailing, so we put him right to work grinding winches — we had to keep the retiree in shape some how!
Now, Jost Van Dyke is etched in many people’s minds as the home of one of the best New Years Eve (they called it Old Years Night) parties on the planet, but arriving the first week of January you will find the place devoid of people and the locals a little tired of serving out-of-towners. But, we did find a nice dinner establishment called the Soggy Dollar Bar where we dined on an exquisite four course meal. Frankly, the dinner could have been lousy, as the company and the scenery was stupendous!
Just to clarify, they didn’t have orange juice on the menu so we had to drink some dark red fluids that Matt ordered. However, you might all be interested to know that the Soggy Dollar pioneered the beverage called the ‘Painkiller’ – a mix of orange juice, pineapple juice, cream de’ coconut and just a smidgen of rum. The bar got it’s name from the fact that there was no way ashore but to swim! That must have been before they invented dinghies as we just beached ours and walked ashore!
The Soggy Dollar is located in White Bay and we had a very tranquil morning the next day, with calm water and lots of turtle sightings as we took in breakfast. To get a little closer experience, we launched kayaks and explored the harbor.
We kissed tranquility good bye moments later when we pointed Thalia towards Sopers Hole, on the west end of Tortola, and then on to Norman Island. With a couple reefs in the main and jib, we had an exhilarating ride upwind — did someone say they wanted to make sure to sail on this vacation??!
On the approach to Norman Island, you pass by a rocky outcropping called the Indians. This is a fabulous snorkeling spot. The National Park moorings are for day use only, and for good reason as the surge here can be treacherous. But the guys were getting very adept at snorkeling by now and handled the danger with skill!
We settled in for the evening at a spot called the Bight on Norman Island. If Jost Van Dyke had been suffering from post New Year’s doldrums, the Bight was just the opposite. We had to hunt around for a vacant mooring among the 75+ boats. One of the more infamous boats moored here is the Willy T. The original Willy T sank a few years back, but in its heyday certain women were found to jump off her top deck absent-mindedly forgetting usually customary swim attire. Back on board the Willy T, they were presented with an official t-shirt to properly cover up with. The present-day Willy T and it’s gaggle of insurance agents now forbid such debauchery. Just toss it all in the heap of legendary tales that abound in these Caribbean waters, and add in the stories of when Foxy actually played at Foxy’s, when you had to swim ashore to the Soggy Dollar, and when Blackbeard smoked out his crew with sulphur fumes. However, the spirit of the Willy T lives on as one of the more gregarious of night spots in the Bight. The concept of ‘night’ spot, though, is relative — you’ll have a hard time finding a bar or restaurant open in this part of the world after 11pm.
We got up and going early the next morning and motored around the corner to pick up one of the dozen National Park moorings at the Caves. There were only a few boats there by 8:30 when we arrived, but within a half hour every mooring was occupied and other boats were enviously circling nearby. We had enjoyed a quiet visit to the Caves in mid-December with Heaven Won’t Wait, but now it was the high season and a whole different strategy was needed — get to where you want to be as early as possible and find a way to avoid the throngs of snorkelers about to fill the caves from the many day charter boats! But, as often is the case, patience is the key. About 20 minutes is all those lightweights can handle and they are migrating back to the mother ship. We jumped back in for a second jaunt, this time taking a flashlight with us to explore deeper into the caves. Alas, we looked behind every nook and cranny but found no pirate treasure, so we had to continue with our current livelihood.
By mid-morning, the pack of boats swarming around looking for a mooring was hard to ignore, so we dropped the lines and left this spot with great snorkeling memories and moved on. We set our sights on the Baths, upwind about 10 miles on Virgin Gorda. If these guys wanted to see as much as possible in 4 days, I would have to get them to the Baths soon. We set out from Norman Island with a vigorous 20 knots of wind and started tacking upwind. We decided to go outside of Peter Island, away from the relative protection of the Sir Francis Drake Channel into open water. This was an interesting diversion from the norm, and provided us with some rugged views of the islands, but the seas were running pretty big and I think if we had remained pounding in the waves too long, the interest in ‘doing a lot of sailing’ would wane pretty quickly, so we tacked back in to the channel and by about 4pm we were secured on a mooring at the Baths. This is the perfect time to visit the Baths, as all of the charter boats have left and the shadows cast on the boulders add great dimension to the beach. We were all full of snorkeling at this point, but we ventured ashore to hike through the boulder-strewn trail to nearby Devil’s Bay. We only came across a handful of people, who were also enjoying this rare moment of peace and quiet in paradise. Once we had checked the Baths off the list, we took off at dusk for another vigorous sail on a perfect beam reach to Marina Cay. It was about 10 miles away, not much different from the distance from Norman Island to the Baths, but we covered the distance in just over an hour at beam reach speeds. By the time we arrived, though, the sun was positively down and darkness had befallen on the mooring field at Marina Cay. Matt guided us in and around the many moored boats so that we could settle on a comfortable anchorage location. This was a four person affair, as Don provided spotlight detail, and Steve and I managed the anchor. Marina Cay is really unmatched for its scenic setting for their restaurant, and we headed in immediately to get a table. The substantial restaurant has a sweeping view of Trellis Bay, Beef Island and surrounding waters, and with its positioning to the west, presents diners with a perfect sunset view. We missed the sunset, but the six different ways they cooked their fresh fish made up for it. It was one of those menus where you’d be hard pressed to find something disagreeable to order.
Time was winding down on the trip and that evening we had our last match of cribbage onboard. The next morning the guys were eager to lay down some serious cash for gifts for all of those family members back home who put up with us and our vacationing habits. While I didn’t buy any gifts for their spouses and children, I’d like to go on the record for saying that I gratefully appreciate letting go of them for 4 days so that they could come down here and play on and in the waters of the beautiful Caribbean. I send them back to you as more refreshed, relaxed and responsible fathers and husbands. Yes, I really mean responsible…. we did some pretty aggressive sailing in 4 days here and I can tell you they are all ready to handle their own boat now!
Seriously, we all had a fantastic time, as you can see in the pictures, and we look forward to the opportunity to do this all over again some where else in another year!
