March 2012 - Antigua to Puerto Rico

1 March 2012   Jolly Harbour to Charlestown, Nevis
The alarm went off at six o’clock; we had a quick breakfast, checked the engine again, made sure that everything was secure and left at half past six.  On the way out, I put up the main sail with 1½ reefs, expecting 20-25 knots winds.  For the first hour, we had very light winds – less than 15 knots, so we continued to motor.  Thankfully the wind picked up to the forecast strength as we moved away from the island.

Sailing to Nevis

The wind was more or less directly behind us, so I rigged up our spinnaker pole to starboard, rolled out the genoa and let the main out to port with a preventer.  We rocked and rolled downwind in the 2-3 metre waves.

Unfortunately the wind direction wasn’t very consistent and kept changing direction by 30 degrees as cloud systems passed overhead.  This meant that we couldn’t relax and we had to gybe the mainsail six or seven times in the eight hour trip.  At one point, we had an unintentional gybe which was fortunately slowed down by the preventer. 

I hooked a very nice big Dorado, which I fought for ten minutes.  I managed to get it alongside and had just started to pull it in with my hands when it gave a final big thrash and broke lose – gutted…

The anchorage in Charlestown is now covered with moorings, which are compulsory.  These moorings are a long way from the beach, so it feels a bit like we are in a car park.  Fifteen years ago, there were hundreds of coconut palm trees stretching as far as the eye could see, but now there are only a few spread about because most have died from some virus. However, it is still a nice place to be, with the volcanic mountain stretching upwards ahead of us.

2 March 2012   Charlestown, Nevis
We were woken up at half past twelve by outrageously loud music coming from beach bar directly opposite where we’re moored – the locals obviously can’t buy speakers any smaller than a wardrobe.  We had to close our hatches and turn on our fans to try to get back to sleep.

Bleary-eyed the next morning, we went into town to clear in.  It wasn’t too painful until we got to the Port Authority and had to pay £40.00 for various port fees.  We walked to the tourist office, picked up some maps & brochures and booked a horse ride for tomorrow morning.

The anchorage is very rolly, so we motored along the coast to see if we could find somewhere closer to the riding stables.  We found that the moorings further up the coast are even more exposed, so we picked one up for lunch in Tamarind Bay and went snorkelling on Cades Point which was rubbish.

We sailed back to Charlestown and, in a startling show of seamanship, we picked up mooring under sail – must be fifteen years since we last did that. 

We attempted to go to a beach bar for dinner, but there was a big swell breaking on the beach.  As I stepped out of the dinghy, a wave caught the back of the dinghy and sent me sprawling full length into the water.  We went back to the boat so that I could change into dry clothes where we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and stayed in for the night.

3 March 2012   Charlestown, Nevis
Our horse riding was booked for ten o’clock and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get there, so we dinghied into Charlestown at half past eight.  We were in town very early, so we decided to walk to the riding stables thinking that it would loosen up our legs nicely.  We didn’t have a map, but I thought that it was only a couple of miles.  It turned out to be more like four miles, so the last half an hour was a bit of a route march.  We arrived, hot and sweaty with five minutes to spare.

Glenys riding along the beach, Nevis

The ride was pleasant - along trails and the beach for the first half. Then the return leg was on quiet roads and through a local village - the guide was very informative about the history and plants of the island.  I managed to cope with the thoroughbred horse that I’d been given, but we were both disappointed that there was no cantering.  Our horses were ex-race horses and we could feel the pent up energy waiting to be released.  It was a big group of seven people and the guide felt that some people wouldn’t be able to control their horses if they took off.

We had lunch in a bar on the beach and caught a bus back into town.  Glenys wanted to walk to the old fort on the headland, which was a little difficult to find.  There were no signs, but we eventually found it inside a compound hidden behind some derelict apartment buildings.  It's an old British fort that is now in ruins, complete with cannons half buried in the long grass.  Not a tourist attraction at all.

We walked back along the beach to the dinghy dock and collapsed onto our boat for a quiet afternoon and evening – a good day out.

4 March 2012   Charlestown, Nevis
The damn beach bar was booming out loud music again after midnight – unfortunately there’s nowhere else to go.  We decided to chill out today, go walking tomorrow and leave on Tuesday.

Glenys just mooched about all day, while I was a little more productive, sorting out some admin in the morning. I finally managed to sort out our various bank accounts and get money moved to the correct places – it’s only taken a month.  

The bottom of the boat was last anti-fouled just before we bought the Alba nearly a year ago, so the chemicals are wearing off and we’re starting to get a significant amount of growth.  I’m hoping to last until we get hauled out in the USA in October, so in the afternoon, I donned my scuba gear and spent an hour or so scraping the barnacles and weed from the bottom of the boat.  I only managed to do half the hull – I’m scraping it with a plastic scraper hoping that I don’t remove too much of the soft, ablative anti-fouling.  I’m trying to remove the growth and expose new antifouling.  It’s a nasty job because I spend most of the time on my back with water trickling down my nose.

5 March 2012   Charlestown, Nevis
We were up early and caught a bus from Charlestown just after eight o’clock, which took us up to Gingerland which is the location of many of the old plantations.  We walked up to the Golden Rock hotel where we picked up a hiking map showing the route up to “The Source”.  

We had a very pleasant four hour hike taking us through some lovely rain forest to a small waterfall which is the source of water supplied to the Golden Rock Estate. The route follows the centuries-old iron pipe which brings water down the mountain. The first half is a gentle hike along easy paths, but the route then becomes a little more challenging with steep paths, old concrete steps and finally a 120 foot iron ladder up to a small pool under a waterfall.

Glenys on the 120 foot old iron ladder up to The Source, Nevis

On the way back down, we spotted a Green Vervet monkey, which looked very guilty as it ran away from a banana tree in someone’s garden.  The locals tie big seed bags around the ripening bunches of bananas to try to keep the pesky monkeys at bay.  We arrived back at the hotel at lunch time, but we took one look at the very stylish patio restaurant and decided it was too up market for us.  Instead we cadged a lift off a taxi to the supermarket at Gingerland and then caught a bus back into Charlestown.  We ended up in the Café Des Art which has a very nice shaded courtyard and serves great sandwiches.  It seems to be the place where all the local ex-pats congregate, which made the place feel very colonial. 

We cleared out of customs and went back to the boat to get ready to sail tomorrow.  I tried to run the dive compressor to fill the scuba tank that I emptied yesterday, but the electric motor wouldn’t start.  I’ve been having trouble starting it for a few weeks now and after some investigation I think that there’s something wrong with the power being produced by our generator.  This is not good news - it’s bad enough not being able to fill dive tanks, but if it gets any worse we’ll not be able to run our watermaker.  This is another thing to be sorted out when we get to St Martin.

6 March 2012   Charlestown to Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
We were up early and left at half past six.  We motor-sailed between St Kitts and Nevis, which was hard work in the big, confused seas.  Once we had negotiated the rocks and shallows, we set a course for St Barts on a fast reach.  The seas settled down a little, but we still had large waves which would occasionally break over the cockpit.

After a few hours, I went to check the fishing lines and noticed that we were trailing a thick, blue polypropylene rope.  It appeared to be caught on our stern gear and must have been floating in the water, probably from a fishing boat.  My “birds” fishing line had snagged the rope, so I tried to drag the rope on board using the fishing line, but the force was too strong and the 60lb steel trace broke – I lost a lure and broke some of my beloved birds.  We hove-to to reduce the boat speed with the intention of trying to snag the rope with a boat hook. Fortunately the act of heaving-to dislodged the rope and it had disappeared without me having to do any messing about.  

We carried on towards St Barts and hooked a big fish.  I started to increase the friction on the reel clutch, but it broke the fishing line.  I’m a bit cross with myself because the fishing line has small nicks and twists and I’ve been meaning to replace it for a month now – I’ve lost another lure because of worn out kit.

At midday, we were only twelve miles from St Barts, so we decided to carry onto St Maarten.  We arrived in Simpson Bay at half past four and anchored under sail because we didn’t know whether there was still some rope attached to the propeller.  I donned my snorkelling gear and found that the stern gear was free of any rope and there’s no noticeable damage.

The anchorage was very crowded and extremely rolly, so we went through into the lagoon.  It’s an interesting process - the bridge opens three times a day and boats jostle for position in a loose queue waiting for the opening.  Once the bridge was open, we motored through the narrow channel passing the bar at the Yacht Club where a small crowd watched and waved at the procession.

Approaching the lifting bridge, St Maarten

We anchored next to “Notre Vie” and cracked open a nice cold beer as the sun went down.

7 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
I was up at seven o’clock on a mission to leave here in seven days’ time.  St Maarten is a very dangerous place because it’s easy to get sucked into waiting to get work done on the boat and start to party every night.  If we want to get the most from the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, we need to leave as soon as possible.  On the other side, as we move further west, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to get anything technical done on the boat without paying an absolute fortune.

We had a day of running around.  We listened to the local cruisers net and then I shot off to drop off one of our cooking gas bottles to get it filled. I came back, picked up Glenys and went to clear in.  This was fairly painless apart from paying $61US and getting five mosquito bites on my legs while filling in the interminable forms – Why, Oh Why don’t I learn to take mosquito repellent with me when I go ashore?

Once cleared in, we walked around the local area, picked up a package that my mum had sent out by FedEx, took some money out of a cash point and bought a case of beer.  We dropped the beer off at the boat and then went to a chandlers, where we spent $300US on parts so that I can make a pump out point for our holding tank and do some other jobs.

We went back to the boat for lunch and I had a look at the generator.  I’ve received an email from the Panda Fischer technical support in the UK, which says that there’s a Voltage Control System which is supposed to maintain the voltage at 230V - when there’s more electrical load the generator is supposed to run faster.  The system operates a small dc motor that turns a worm gear attached to the generator throttle.  I found that the dc motor has been disconnected and the worm gear has been locked off in one position.  The generator is producing 237 Volts with no load and 217 Volts when the water maker is running.  I connected the dc motor and tried it again, but the worm gear doesn’t move.  It’s obviously been like this for nearly a year now.

I scooted around trying to buy other parts and arranging for an engineer to come and look at our generator, which may not be until next week – I can feel myself being sucked into the vortex and not leaving here for three weeks…

I opened the package from the UK and found that I’ve been sent the wrong gasket for the exhaust elbow – bummer.  I’ve been waiting for this for over a month now and they’ve sent me the wrong one.  I went to the local Volvo mechanic and they haven’t got one so I’ll have to go over to the French side and try to get one there.  Again, we will probably have to wait a week to get it shipped in.

We went to the Yacht Club to drown our sorrows with John & Sunny from “Notre Vie” and met Kent and Dawn from “Kristy”.


8 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
It’s Glenys’s birthday today and I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get her anything at all – not even a box of chocolates.  Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem that bothered.

I started to install the pump out facility for the front toilet holding tank, but the pipe fittings and valve that I’d bought yesterday are very large and wouldn’t fit into the space available.  I redesigned what I had to do and scooted off to Budget Marine to change some bits.  I called in at Electec and they hope to have someone out to look at our generator tomorrow.  When I arrived back, Glenys went to buy a second hand pilot book for the Virgin Islands.

By lunchtime, I’d fitted most of the pipework and, after measuring the position five times, took a deep breath and drilled a two inch hole in the deck for a new deck outlet fitting.  Fortunately, it was in the correct place, so I dug out ½” of the foam from the middle of the deck sandwich and squeezed in some thick epoxy to make it watertight in case the deck fitting leaks at some point in the future.  I should be able to finish the job tomorrow after the epoxy hardens.

Replacing the faulty temperature sensor on the cooker

Glenys went off to do some shopping in the afternoon with Sunny from “Notre Vie”, while I ripped the cooker apart and replaced the temperature sensor which has been stopping the oven from working.  It wasn’t a particularly easy job as I had to dismantle quite a bit of the cooker to get at everything – very annoying considering that it was an expensive cooker and hasn’t worked properly since it was new.

We went to the Yacht Club for Happy Hour and then went for a Birthday meal with Kent and Dawn from “Kristy”.

9 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
Glenys went to the French side of the island to find the Volvo dealer and buy a gasket for the exhaust elbow, but unfortunately, they say that there are none available in the Caribbean and that Volvo are not going to manufacture any more.  I don’t believe this so I’m going to try to get the UK dealer to send one out to Virgin Gorda.

Communications is a problem for us here in the Lagoon; our UK phone SIM cards don’t allow outgoing calls and we’re not able to pick up any internet access while at anchor.  Apparently, there is so much interference from the large power boats that internet wireless signals can’t get through.  I’m amazed that no one has got it working in this very busy anchorage.  

We’ve not had any email for a few days, so Glenys sneaked into a big hotel and sat in the foyer to get our mail.  Unfortunately, she found out that our bank has suspended our Internet banking because I tried to transfer a large sum of money to another savings account – we need to ring their security team.  This is a nightmare with no mobile phone access and no internet to Skype. 

I finished off the holding tank plumbing in the morning and tried to get the electrician out to look at our generator – maybe tomorrow morning…  In the afternoon, I refitted the cooker in place and the oven appears to work correctly now, thank goodness.  

I then spent a couple of hours working out how to fit a soft start controller to my dive compressor motor.  I’ve had this device on board for nearly a year and haven’t fitted it because the compressor has been working OK.  The soft starter is supposed to reduce the starting current on an electric motor, so I’m hoping that I can get the compressor running without doing any major work on the generator and more importantly without having to wait here in St Maarten for spare parts to be flown in.

During the day, I managed to kick one of the shrouds as I was walking past in my bare feet.  I’ve ripped the skin from two toes and somehow sprained my little toe which is now bruising up nicely.  I spent most of the day limping about and protecting my poor foot.  This is an occupational hazard because we spent all of our time on the boat with bare feet and there are lots of sharp, hard things sticking out of the deck.  Touch wood and whistle; we’ve been pretty lucky so far.

We had a quiet night in for a change.

Glenys tries to find a quiet place to read amongst the chaos

10 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
Amazingly the electrician turned up at nine o’clock.  He ran some tests and found that the Voltage Control System circuit board is not working.  He tested the dc motor and the large capacitors which are working fine – the circuit board is simply not sending any signals to the dc motor.  He reckons that if they order a new circuit board on Monday we should be up and running by the end of next week – bummer, looks like another week in St Maarten.  I’ll go into Electec on Monday morning and get them to give me a quote and confirm the delivery date.  I scooted off to buy some electrical bits to fit the soft starter – if I can get my dive compressor running with the generator in its current state, then I might leave the VCS system locked off until we get hauled out in the States in October.   

We have an EPIRB, which is an essential safety device.  When it's activated, it alerts the Search & Rescue authorities that we have a problem.  It has worldwide coverage and tells the authorities our exact position using a network of satellites.  If we sink in the middle of the ocean and have to get into our life-raft then we’ll activate the EPIRB and the Search & Rescue can then send out a helicopter or divert a ship to come and rescue us.  I tested our EPIRB a few days ago and it failed it’s self-test.  I’ve tried to get someone local to change the battery, but the guy never came back to me.  The EPIRB is fourteen years old and it may not be possible to service it, so I bit the bullet and bought a nice shiny new one for $600US – somehow, I now feel a lot safer.

After lunch, Glenys went off to Business Point to pay for access to the Internet.  Unfortunately, she was unable to get a good enough connection to talk to our bank using Skype – we’ll try again tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I tidied up the mess left by doing jobs for three days and then worked on rewiring the dive compressor motor.  I just about finished by sunset, but I’m waiting until tomorrow to try it.  I don’t want to blow up my dive compressor…

While gazing across the anchorage as the sun went down, I pondered about the bizarre set up of St Maarten with the small island being split into a Dutch side and a French side.  We’re anchored in the Dutch side of the lagoon and have to pay $30US per week to stay here.  The French border is only one hundred metres away and they only have to pay $15 to clear in, consequently the French side is very crowded with yachts avoiding paying the additional fees.  We should have made the effort to clear into the French side, but when we arrived, we didn’t realise the difference in the cost.  Now that we’re settled, I can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of checking out of the Dutch side and into the French side.  Hopefully we’ll only be here another week.

11 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
It's Sunday, so we declared today a holiday, but I couldn’t resist trying my dive compressor.  I was a little nervous after my extensive rewiring yesterday, so I checked everything and amazingly it started.   This is good news because we now don’t need to wait for a replacement Voltage Control System circuit board.

We went to the Business Point office to sort out our bank account.  Again we couldn’t talk to them using Skype, so we had to use a land line which cost us £8, but at least we have internet banking again.  While we had Internet access, we registered our new EPIRB with the US authorities, so that if we have to activate the device they will know who to look for.  I also arranged for a new engine exhaust gasket to be sent out from the UK to the BVI - hopefully they'll provide the correct one this time.

Marigot Bay, French St Martin

After lunch, we went over to the French side and wandered around a while, walked up to the fort then went to a supermarket to buy some French food.  In the evening, we went to Happy Hour at the Yacht Club and carried onto a Mexican restaurant.


12 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
We’re planning to sail to the British Virgin Islands on the 15th, so we spent the morning running around.  I’ve found out that the cost of a new Voltage Control System board on the generator will be about £700, so I told Electec that we’re not going to bother fixing it.  We then went to the chandlers and Ace Hardware to buy various bits of kit.  

We’ve been told that food and booze prices are very high in the BVIs, so we’ll be stocking up here with enough to last us for a month or so.  We started off with the essentials and bought three cases of beer and two cases of wine this morning.

In the afternoon, Glenys went off to another supermarket while I tidied up the wiring for the dive compressor and reinstalled it in the cockpit locker.  I then put some marine epoxy onto the leaking part of the engine exhaust elbow as a temporary fix until I get a gasket to fit the new exhaust elbow. 

Wandering around Philipsburg, St Maarten

In the evening, we went out to an Indian restaurant with “Notre Vie” – that’s three meals out in the space of a week, we’ll be bankrupt soon.

13 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
We had a lazy day and went into Phillipsburg.  There were five cruise ships in the bay, so it was bedlam on the sea front with Segways and mountain bikes zipping around amongst the thousands of tourists being unloaded from the ships.  There is constant chatter from locals wanting to sell you stuff with special deals such as a beach chair and five cold beers for only $20US.  I don’t remember a beach all the way along the bay, perhaps it’s all imported sand.

We wandered along the sea front, then down Front Street which is back to back electronics, jewellery and souvenir shops.  It’s a good place to do some serious people watching as there are all sorts that pour off the cruise ships.  We were very naughty and sneaked into MacDonald’s for lunch – first one for over a year.

Back on the boat, I replaced the kitchen tap, which has been leaking ever since we bought the boat.  As expected, it didn’t go smoothly because the pipe fittings were all different on the new tap and I had to hacksaw a bigger hole in the work surface.  After a bit of running around, I managed to buy some pipe fittings at Budget Marine, so we now have a drip free tap.

Glenys went to Business Point to sort out email and had a very successful time – she managed to use our internet banking to pay for our yacht hull insurance for next year and the gasket for the exhaust elbow is finally on its way to the British Virgin Islands. 

We had a quiet night in for a change. 

14 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
We had another running around sort of day.  I went to Ace Hardware and the chandlers to buy some more bits and pieces.  We’re expecting that it will be hard or expensive to buy things as we travel through the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.  I’m trying to think ahead and buy things that I’ll need over the next two months.

We then went ashore and tried to change our remaining Eastern Caribbean dollars into US dollars, but after queuing for ages in two banks we’ve been told that we’d have to go over to the French side because none of the banks on the Dutch side do currency exchange – very weird…  We’ll try in the BVIs or just wait until we get to the States or the UK.

Our next stop was a supermarket, near the marina where we parked our dinghy.  We focussed on getting heavy stuff which we could quickly carry to the dinghy - three cases of beer, 12 litres of Coke, 8 litres of orange juice, etc.

We grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch and then went to a huge supermarket where Glenys bought more European things like Kellogg’s breakfast cereal; part baked French baguettes and wasabi paste.  You’d think that we’re going to cross the Atlantic with the amount of provisioning that we’re doing. 

Sunset in Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten

The rest of the afternoon was spent tidying up and preparing to sail tomorrow evening.  I’m starting to get soft – it was 25°C tonight and I had to put on a light jumper.  I’m going to suffer when we go further north.

15 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon to Gorda Sound, BVI (Day 1)
We hung about in the morning doing more tidying up and waiting for the bridge opening at eleven o’clock.  I replaced the fishing line on my trolling reel and repaired one of my birds with epoxy.   Once through the bridge, we anchored in the extremely rolly anchorage.  I went ashore to clear out of customs – it cost us another $47US to clear out giving a total cost of $108US for the privilege of anchoring for ten nights in the lagoon.  Perhaps we should have gone over to the French side.

After lunch, we went to Business Point and checked our emails – nothing much happening which is good news.  Ceris seems to be recovering and is able to talk, but is not able to eat solid food yet.  Gareth is talking about her moving back into his house in a few days’ time.  Goodness knows how they are going to cope with her additional care requirements. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon waiting to leave at sunset.  Glenys rustled up a nice, filling Rosti with two fried eggs that should keep us going.

The waiting was too much for us and we cracked up, leaving just after six o’clock.  The wind was light at first while we were in the lee of the island, but was coming from our starboard quarter and promised a nice broad reach.  After half an hour, we tried to sail, but we were only able to do three knots so, at seven o’clock, Glenys turned the engine on while I went to bed to start our usual three hour watches.  

At eight o’clock, Glenys turned off the engine and started to sail, but we were going downwind rather than on a broad reach, so the jib was collapsing and filling as it was blanketed by the main sail.  Each time that the jib filled, the genoa car made a horrible banging noise down, below right above my head, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep.  

I was a little bit cranky when I got up at ten o’clock and blamed Glenys for letting the sail flog for two hours.  I didn’t want to go through the hassle of putting up a pole, so I sheeted the jib in tight and magically the banging and crashing stopped.  Most of the drive was coming from the main sail and we were doing about five knots, so we sailed like that all night. 

16 March 2012   Simpson Bay Lagoon to Gorda Sound, BVI (Day 2)
It was a very dark night until three o'clock when the moon finally came out. There were quite a few ships wandering about – some big cruise ships were travelling between the BVI and St Maarten all lit up like mini skyscrapers.  We also had some commercial ships that crossed our track.  I’m guessing that the eighty mile passage between St Maarten and the BVI is a major shipping lane between the USA and the eastern Caribbean.  Fortunately they were all keeping a good watch and we had no nasty encounters.

At dawn, we were still thirty miles from the BVI, slowly plodding along at a comfortable five miles per hour.  I put out two fishing lines, but didn’t have any bites.  We went through the passage between Round Rock and Ginger Island and anchored off Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda at half past ten.  

End of an overnight sail, BVI

I went ashore to clear in through customs and immigration, which was no problem, but they didn't issue the permits for the National Park moorings.  One of the main reasons that we have come to the BVI is to do plenty of dives, so we need the permit.  The customs guy told me that I can get one from the National Park office above The Baths or come back tomorrow at nine o'clock, when someone would be there for a couple of hours.

We decided to get the permit now so that we could relax tomorrow.  We motored a mile along to The Baths, but found that all of the moorings were taken, so we had to anchor in Spring Bay which is very rocky and terrible holding.  I left Glenys on anchor watch and went off in the dinghy to find the National Park office.  The Baths are a major tourist attraction and, to protect the swimmers, it’s no longer permitted to use an outboard to get to the beach.  Instead, I had to tie up to a dinghy mooring line, which is twenty five metres from the beach.  

I swam ashore in my swimming shorts and Teva sandals while holding my documents and wallet above my head in a water proof bag – not easy with the waves crashing onto the beach.  I wandered in to a beach bar and asked where the National Park office was located.  The lady gave me a very blank look, but eventually found someone who directed me up a path to the main road.

The guy in the National Park office made me stand outside because I was dripping wet through and told me that the charge is $50US per week.  I told him that I wanted ten days starting on the 19th March.  This wasn’t possible – I had to buy whole weeks and it would have to start today.  I prevaricated because I knew that we weren’t going to use mooring for a few days, but eventually I relented and bought two weeks.  I swam back to the dinghy and reported back to Glenys, still seething about the stupid system, and the difficulty of getting a permit.

We motored around to Gorda Sound and anchored behind a reef in Drake's Anchorage in perfect isolation at around three o'clock.  We collapsed and had an early night.  


17 March 2012   Gorda Sound, BVI 
We had a lie-in and then pottered about for most of the day.  I managed to get an Internet connection, so I caught up on updating my website.  Glenys read a book and made up an itinerary for the next two weeks, so that we make the most of our short two week stay here in the BVI.

In the afternoon, we went snorkelling in a couple of places.  The water is lovely and clear and there is plenty of healthy reef.  I’m looking forward to going scuba diving.

We were invited over for sun downers on “Melvin” by Terry and Julie.  Four beers later, Glenys magically produced a pizza for our dinner which really hit the spot.

Schoolmasters, BVI

18 March 2012   Gorda Sound, BVI 
We were up early and keen to go for a dive.  We motored over to the Dog Islands aiming to pick up a Marine Park mooring.  I was annoyed because, of the five moorings that were on the Marine Park map, three were for commercial Boats only and one was missing.  I have a guide to some of the dive sites and it would appear that all the moorings in good dive locations are reserved for dive boats.  So why have I paid $100US for a mooring permit?  I’m hoping that there are more moorings in the more popular places - otherwise I’ll be really grumpy…

Fortunately, we were able to pick up the only yacht mooring available. It was 50 metres from the dive site that I wanted to do, so we put our gear into the dinghy and tied the dinghy off the commercial mooring – at least a dive boat would still be able to use the mooring.

The dive was called Bronco Billy and was excellent, going through an underwater arch and through canyons cut into the rocky island.  The water was nice and clear and there was a lot of fish and reef life.

It was raining when we surfaced, so we sorted out our diving gear and motored over to Great Dog Island to check out the Marine Park moorings there.  This is a more popular place and there were four yacht moorings and two commercial moorings.  We might come back here for a dive.

We motored back to Gorda Sound and anchored off Prickly Pear Island near to “Notre Vie”.  We ran our dive compressor and filled our two tanks ready for tomorrow.  We went to Happy Hour at Saba Rock with “Notre Vie” and had two Pussers Painkillers, which are extremely lethal rum cocktails. 

As we were leaving the bar, we spotted “Blackthorne Lady” anchoring, so we went over for a quick chat.  We’ll come back here tomorrow and have a beer with them.

Glenys made a cracking Beef Vindaloo for dinner.

19 March 2012   Gorda Sound, BVI 
We had a late start and then went around to Mountain Point to do a dive.  We picked up a yacht mooring which was (again) 100 metres from the best dive site.  A tourist snorkelling boat came in and picked up the commercial dive mooring over the dive site, so I went over and they said that it was okay for us to tie our dinghy alongside them on their mooring.

It was a good dive called Mountain Point.  We spotted a Nurse Shark lurking in a small cave, went through an underwater canyon through the headland to a deeper reef.  The water was clear and there was plenty of sea life to look at.  I took some really naff pictures because I didn’t position my strobe very well – I really need to do some more practice.

We had lunch while on the mooring and then motored back to Eustatia Island, which is a little bit off the beaten track - there were only three other boats in the anchorage.  We anchored away from everyone else and ran our dive compressor for 40 minutes.  

Glenys on a safety stop

After half an hour of chilling out, we decided to go to the anchorage in Gorda Sound through the coral reefs.   The light was pretty good so it was fairly easy, if a little stressful.  The minimum depth that we had was 3 metres which is quite deep.

We anchored off Saba Rock and went to Happy Hour with Ian & Jacqui from “Blackthorn Lady”.  One beer and two Pussers Painkillers made it a very convivial reunion.  It was great to catch up with them again. They were going to go up to the East Coast of the States, so we were hoping to bump into them along the way, but now they’re planning to spend the hurricane season in the Dominican Republic.  I hope that we’ll see them again somewhere. 

20 March 2012   Gorda Sound to Haulover Bay, Cooper Island, BVI 
We set the alarm clock, dragged ourselves out of bed at seven o’clock, pulled up the anchor and had breakfast while we were motoring along the coast of Virgin Gorda.  Our aim was to get down to The Baths and pick up a mooring before the hordes of charter boats arrive.  The Baths is an area where there are huge granite boulders on the shore creating a series of caves and tunnels.  The sea floods in, creating still pools where the sunlight causes interesting lighting effects.  It’s a very popular place and the thirty or so moorings are quickly taken.

We arrived at The Baths at half past eight to find that all of the moorings were already taken and there were ten boats in the anchorage further up the coast.  The rules for the Marine Park forbid anyone staying on a mooring overnight, but it’s obvious that people picked up the moorings yesterday.  It was chaos with dinghies flashing about and people swimming ashore.  We decided that it wasn't worth the effort because the peaceful caves wouldn't be very peaceful with hundreds of people milling about.

We turned south west, unfurled the jib and gently sailed to Ginger Island where we picked up a Marine Park mooring.  Again there are six moorings around the island and five of them are commercial only.  I can feel a stroppy email coming on.

We did the same as previous days and took our dinghy to one of the commercial moorings where we did a great dive called Alice in Wonderland.  It has lovely coral reef ridges with sandy patches between.  I had my camera set up better and took some good photos of a big Spiny Lobster that I found under a ledge.

After lunch, we motored around to Manchineel Bay on Cooper Island to buy some spare O-rings for our dive tank.  The bay is packed with over fifty moorings – there is no place to anchor apart from a very deep patch at the south east end.  After getting the O-rings, we went a mile around to Haulover Bay and anchored close to the shore under some big cliffs.  There was only one other boat in this lovely place.  Why on earth are people paying $25US to moor very close to other boats?

Haulover Bay, Cooper Island, BVI

By the time that we had filled our scuba tanks and ran the watermaker, it was four o’clock.  More boats had started to arrive in the anchorage and, by sunset, there were another ten anchored.  The moorings in Manchineel Bay were obviously all taken.  A Hallberg Rassey 41 called “Windfall” anchored close to us, so I went over and invited Per and Leana over for a beer.  They’re Swedish and must have different customs to us because they arrived at half past five and didn’t go until nine o’clock by which time we were starving.  I guess that they had an early dinner.  Glenys rustled up a Spanish Omelette which quickly disappeared.

21 March 2012   Haulover Bay, Cooper Island, BVI 
We had a bit of a lie in, chilled out for a couple of hours and then went for a dive on The Marie L which is a wreck of a 90 foot long freighter and three smaller vessels that were sunk specifically as a dive site.  The water was clear again and the wrecks were interesting.  There was a huge Barracuda inside one of the cabins which looked very threatening as we approached it – we kept our distance, but I managed to get a couple of good photos through a porthole.  We saw a Lionfish for the first time in the BVI.  They’re definitely well-established throughout the Caribbean.

After lunch, we had a nap – the four dives in four days have obviously exhausted us.  Then I filled the dive tanks, ran the watermaker and it was time for a beer.  We were invited over to “Windfall” for sun downers and managed to escape at half past seven.  There were heavy rain showers coming through, so we had dinner down below for a change.

Filling Dive Tanks Again

22 March 2012   Haulover Bay to Great Harbour, Peter Island, BVI 
It was overcast and raining when we dragged ourselves out of bed.  The weather brightened up, so we decided to have a day off diving and go over to Road Town to see if the exhaust elbow gasket has arrived, get a load of laundry done and buy some food – it’s been a week since we've been near a grocery shop.  However, as we turned the corner out of the anchorage, we could see huge rain clouds building over Tortola, so we changed to Plan B and went to have a look how crowded the moorings were for the wreck of The Rhone.

There are six red, general use moorings and loads of yellow commercial moorings and to our great surprise there were two red moorings free, so we picked one of them up and did a scuba dive on the RMS Rhone.  This Royal Mail Steamer was hit by a hurricane in 1867 and while trying to escape to the open sea, was forced onto the rocks on Salt Island.  The wreck is split into two main sections – we did our dive on the deeper bow section which is very good.  The water is very clear. The wreck is collapsing, but is still in remarkable condition considering that it sank one hundred and fifty years ago.  There are thousands of fish that gather beneath the wreckage, in some places hundreds of large snappers in shoals.

A heavy rain squall hit just after we climbed back onto Alba, so we had to wait for an hour for clearer weather before dropping the mooring.  We motored over to Peter Island and had a look at Deadman’s Bay, but the swell was hooking around the point of the bay making it rolly.  The next bay was Great Harbour, which is not the best anchorage in the world as it is very deep in the middle.  We anchored in a depth of ten metres near the north east peninsula.  The wind swirls around in the bay and an hour later, we had to re-anchor because we were being pushed very close to the shore.

We filled our dive tanks and ran the watermaker again- we use quite a bit of water when we go diving because we rinse out the diving equipment.  We had a quiet night in.

23 March 2012   Great Harbour to Key Bay, Peter Island, BVI 
It rained a few times last night and there are stronger winds when the squalls go through.  We left Great Harbour in the morning and anchored in Benures Bay on Norman Island.  It’s quite sheltered in the bay, but the wind swirls around.  There were only two yachts in the bay when we arrived and both of them were facing in completely opposite directions, so it was difficult to tell where to anchor.

Balloonfish, BVI

We dropped our anchor in 10 metres of water near a yacht that was in the centre of the bay.  The guy on board had definitely gone “tropo” – over sixty years old, shaggy grey beard, a beer belly and naked as a jay bird.  Not the most pleasant sight.  Initially, we were fifty metres away from him and close to the shore, but we started to pirouette around the anchorage in the light winds and ended up too close to the tropo yacht for my sanity.

So, after lunch, we motored around to The Bight which used to be a fantastic anchorage, but is now covered with the dreaded moorings.  There is nowhere to anchor other than in very deep water or very close to the shore near a beach bar which is bound to be noisy.  We left in disgust.

We motored over to Key Bay and anchored in the constant wind, off a nice beach next to a small island – ideal.  The sky was mostly overcast all day with squalls giving long periods of heavy rain, so we just hunkered down and read our books.  There’s an area of low pressure over the Bahamas which is causing this horrible weather – we’re going to have to get used to more variable weather as we head north. 

It was miserable in the evening, so we had our Chicken Enchilladas down below.


24 March 2012   Key Bay, Peter Island, BVI 
It was a very blustery night with heavy rain squalls coming through, but the morning was much sunnier. This is such a quiet anchorage that we decided to stay another night.

Our generator has been running unevenly recently and it seems to be when it gets hot after running for thirty minutes. The speed of the engine is slowing down every couple of seconds, which sounds like it is starved of fuel.  I first bled the injectors of any air, which made no difference.  I've had a similar problem before and so I cleaned the fuel pump relay socket with WD 40 and replaced the relay.  This seemed to sort the problem out – touch wood and whistle.  The old relay had diesel on the contacts, but nothing inside - it's probably a bad connection on the relay pins.

While running the water maker, I noticed that the sample valve is leaking, which means that some of the water that we are making is coming out of a plastic tube and going straight down the drain.  I've tried to fix it, but it looks like something is worn inside the plastic valve, so I’ll have to try to get a new one.  In the meantime, I’ve come up with a cunning plan – I've clamped the end of the plastic tube with a small pair of mole grips, which stops the dribble of water.

Glenys checks out the propeller of the RMS Rhone, BVI

After lunch we chilled out for a while, went for a short walk on the island and then went snorkelling for an hour.  The weather is still very variable with rain showers coming through, but it stayed dry enough to have dinner in the cockpit.  After our meal, we watched a film down below on my laptop.

25 March 2012   Key Bay to Buck Island, Tortola, BVI 
We motored east directly into the wind to find a place to go diving.  The seas were a bit too high to do the more exposed dives, so we ended up diving on the stern section of the RMS Rhone, which was very good.  

We nipped around to Salt Island Bay and anchored for lunch and then had a leisurely sail across to Buck Bay on Tortola.  This is a lovely isolated anchorage in the lee of a private island.  A little bit of swell hooks around the corner, but it just makes a pleasant rocking motion.  There was nobody here until just before sunset when a catamaran came in and anchored a long way from us.  Goodness knows why people crowd into The Bight and Manchineel Bay when there are lovely anchorages like these.

The other great thing about this anchorage is that I was able to get Internet access for the first time in a week.  After filling the dive tanks, I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on email and working on the new diving section of our web site.

26 March 2012   Buck Island, Tortola, BVI 
I woke up feeling pretty grim and with a stomach bug.  We motored around to Road Town and anchored just outside the marinas.  A three foot swell was coming in from the south making it a very exposed anchorage, so we rushed to get off the boat.

We went into Village Cay Marina, dumped four big bags of rubbish and Glenys dropped off the laundry which will be ready at nine o'clock tomorrow morning.  I asked at the marina office if they had received our package with the exhaust gasket, but no sign of it.  I was surprised because it was sent on the 13th by airmail. The lady was a little vague about the process, but I eventually deduced that it would probably be held at the post office and a pink slip would be sent to the marina.

We decided to walk to the post office and see if they had any record of it arriving. This turned out to be a long 20 minute walk in the beating sun to discover that they have not received it.  Dismayed, we walked back to town and wandered around aimlessly, but couldn't find any centre to the town – it's a sprawling mess.  Goodness knows what the cruise ship tourists do when then land here.

Main Street, Road Town, Tortola, BVI

Glenys dragged me around the supermarket, where I was starting to feel decidedly dodgy after the dehydrating walk to the post office.  We went back to the boat and motored back to Buck Bay, having lunch on the way.  Once anchored, I went to bed for a couple of hours, while Glenys took advantage of the good Internet connection that we've picked up.

We had a quiet night and I went to bed early.

27 March 2012   Buck Island to Monkey Point, BVI 
I felt much better this morning.  We motored back to Road Town to pick up the laundry, but typically it wasn't ready.  Glenys had made the fatal mistake of telling them that she’d pick it up at nine o'clock today instead of five o'clock last night.  In their island minds, this means that they didn't have to start it until today…

The mail still hasn't arrived, so we spent an hour wandering around town while the laundry was finished off.  We found Main Street which is a bit nicer than the rest of the town with old buildings and small shops.

After we picked up the laundry, we motored across to Deadman’s Bay on Peter Island, had lunch and then went for a dive called Painted Walls, which was very good - going into canyons on an exposed headland.  It was very calm today, but there was still some surge.  We were both excited to see a Reef Shark that cruised past, checking us out. 

We motored over to Trellis Bay, which was packed with moorings and nowhere to anchor.  We looked at Marina Cay which was the same.  We went around to Lee Bay, which had four boats in already – the bottom seemed to be broken coral & rubble and after two attempts, we couldn't get settled.  We went around to White Bay and found that the bottom is all broken coral & rubble, so we gave up and picked up a Marine Park mooring at Monkey Point.  We felt like nomads, but a nice cold beer soon got our spirits up.

Glenys started up the water maker and noticed that the amount of water coming out was less than it used to be.  I had a quick look and decided that I need to strip down the sample valve.  We turned it off and I’ll look at it tomorrow.

Moored in the BVI

28 March 2012   Monkey Point to Manchineel Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI 
I didn't sleep well, waking up at four o'clock in the morning wondering how I was going to sort out the water maker.  I was up at seven o'clock.

I stripped down the leaking valve and found that a lug on the plastic ballcock has been worn away, so it’s turning too much.  I managed to reassemble it in the correct position and hopefully it will last until I can get a replacement.  It took me ninety minutes to sort it out and I was very relieved when the water maker worked.  We made water for over an hour - happiness is having a week’s supply of water.

We sailed down to Jost Van Dyke and anchored in Manchineel Bay with one other yacht, which was a fifty metres away.  Two hundred metres to our south is a lovely sandy island called Sandy Spit which is heaving with charter boats all packed close to each other – it’s obviously a place on the cruising itinerary.  We've become weary of charter boats and crowded anchorages filled with moorings, so we’re planning to move onto Puerto Rico the day after tomorrow.  

We chilled out for the rest of the day.  I had a practise on my clarinet which didn't take long because my lips turned to rubber after ten minutes.  I must practise more.

As we sat with our sundowner beers, we formulated a theory that boats travel around at a speed that is inversely proportional to the angle of the sun above the horizon.  People are quite happy to drift along at 3 knots in the afternoon, but when the sun gets lower in the sky, it turns into a frenzy of “Gotta Getta Mooring” and yachts come hurtling into the bays at great speed.

29 March 2012   Manchineel Bay to Key Bay, Peter Island, BVI 
It was a rock and roll night as the wind picked up to over twenty knots and there was a big swell coming in from the north, which was hooking around the corner into the anchorage.  The narrow cut between Little Jost Van Dyke and Sandy Spit, which was 50 metres in front of us, had impressive three foot high breakers this morning.

We sailed downwind to Great Harbour, where we were able to clear out of customs and buy some bread.  This bay has the largest settlement on Jost Van dyke, but is a real one horse town.  The main road is a sand filled dirt track that runs along the edge of the beach.  There are a plethora of bars who pander to the hordes of tourists that arrive on the charter boats and the small power boats coming across from the US Virgin Islands.  It’s a quaint little place, but there are a few old Jimmy Buffet wannabes wandering around in flowery shirts with their long, grey hair tied up in pony tails - quite sad really.

We sailed over to Key Bay on Peter Island, so that we'll be protected from the north swells that are supposed to get bigger tonight.  The plan is to sail along the southern coast of St Thomas tomorrow to shelter us from the north swells which could make the 40 mile trip unpleasant.

The afternoon was spent chilling out and getting ready to sail tomorrow.  Our beer fridge has been gurgling again, so I topped it up with refrigerant.  I must find someone with a Freon detector and find this damn leak.

30 March 2012   Key Bay to Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico
The alarm went off at half past six and we left half an hour later.  We sailed past The Bight avoiding the procession of charter boats going out to The Indians to pick up a mooring before they’re all taken – “Gotta Getta Mooring”.

Sheared off rivets on the Rod Kicker

The sail down the south coast of St John and St Thomas was uneventful - sometimes we had enough wind to sail and other times we had to motor-sail.  Once clear of St Thomas, we had a pleasant downwind sail to Sail Rock, which sticks up 100 feet out of the sea, half way to Isla Culebra.  We caught a 3lb Rainbow Runner before we reached Sail Rock and a 10lb Amberjack between Sail Rock and Isla Culebra.  

As we were approaching the tricky, reef strewn approach to the main bay in Isla Culebra, the skies darkened and it didn't look too good to the south of us.  We thought that the rain squalls had passed us, but the winds increased just as we approached the first navigation buoy.  I decided to continue sailing up the channel and we did a rubbish gybe, allowing the main boom to slam over from 30 degrees over to starboard to port, which for some reason, sheared the rivets attaching our Rod Kicker to the mast – bummer…

I gybed the jib and rolled it away, while Glenys put on the engine and headed up the channel.  I went forward and tied the foot of the Rod Kicker to the mast to stop it gouging holes in our teak deck.  As the rain started to fall, we turned into the wind and I danced the light fandango on the foredeck putting the main away.  It was lashing it down for the next fifteen minutes as we motored through the approach channel – thank goodness for the navigation buoys, otherwise we would have had to sit out at sea for a couple of hours while the rain squalls went through.

The rain was getting heavier as we entered the bay, so we temporarily anchored just to the west of the entrance in the approach to Ensenada Dakity.  While waiting for the rain to pass, we were called on the VHF radio by “PR2” – Robby and Peter know Sergio, the previous owner of Alba, very well.  Robby told me that the customs people are really fussy about correct procedure and that I was supposed to ring them as soon as I arrived in their territorial waters.

Lifting bridge, Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico

I rang the Customs and spent ten minutes giving them the details of our boat, passport numbers, etc. - this cost £10 on my UK phone.  They then told me that I had to ring another number to arrange to go to see the customs and immigration at the local airport, which made it all seem like a waste of time.  However, I rang the local customs and, after a small discussion, they have allowed us to delay our trip to the airport until tomorrow, which saves us rushing around in the rain.

The rain slowed down at four o'clock, so we motored to the anchorage off the main town of Dewey.  We put up the rain covers and I then spent thirty minutes filleting the two fish that we had caught, before collapsing with a nice cold beer. 

Fortunately, the rain stopped before dark making the place look a little more like the Caribbean rather than northern Europe in the winter.  We've spotted a couple of boats that we know, so hopefully this will be a good place to stop for a week or so.

Glenys cooked the Rainbow Runner for dinner.  We've put the Amberjack in the fridge until I can make sure that the species of fish is okay to eat – we don’t want to get poisoned by Ciguatera.

31 March 2012   Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico
We were feeling a little apprehensive as we walked to the Airport to clear in, hoping that our new US visas were all correct and we wouldn't have any hassle.  Memories of getting a deportation order for our children back in 1995 when we were on Glencora were still vivid. The officer for Home Land Security was wearing body armour, had a huge gun in a holster and looked very threatening, but turned out to be a really nice guy. We  now have cruising permit for one year which also covers anywhere in the USA, which means that the boat can stay in the states until next March which is great news.  

We wandered around the town of Dewey, which didn't take long. There's a few restaurants, a supermarket, a post office, a ferry dock and that's about it apart from a very impressive lifting bridge that isn't used any more.  I went over to a sports fishing boat and showed them a photograph of the Amberjack that we caught and the guy said that it wasn't good to eat because of Ciguaterra, so it's going over the side.

We did a few small jobs in the afternoon and then went out to the Dinghy Dock Bar for happy hour with Joe and Mitchell from “Peregrine” and a few other cruisers, who have taken root here.  We wandered off by ourselves and ended up in the Zaco Taco restaurant where we had a fantastic meal of tacos and a huge burrito.  While we were in there, we invited ourselves over to another table with a large group of cruisers and had a beer with them before all piling out to go to another bar to listen to a drum band.  Good night out – I can see how people get stuck here.