BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

When I mention the words (us or we) that includes the Pas De Deux and Mystique. We have been traveling together now for 2 months. It’s a great relationship. Now we have taken on Susie from Pharos. Her and Michiel have grown quite close these days.

BVI are a lot different then the Bahamas. All of the Islands are really closely placed together. We only stopped at four. Carl has to use the chart plotter to click on each Island to tell us what Island is which. You can sail to a whole different Island in about 6 hours That’s a short sail for sailors. Each Island has lots of places to stop and explore.

People can charter a sail boat through the bare boat cruisers. Therefore, they are everywhere. Some hire a caption and some don’t. In the Bahamas everyone owned their own boats and know sailing etiquette. These people have no clue what’s going on. There is also way more cruise ships stopping and dropping hook. That can make the stops really crowed. Sometimes really fun. Carl likes the girls in swim suits. These are the places that we decided to visit.

Christmas Cove: Last stop in the USVI before BVI.

Tortola:
Sopers Hole (West End). Customs station and Pussers Rum Bar. Cute little Island.
Cane Garden Bay: Very small Island not much to see.
Marina Cay: Susie has friends that own a vacation home here on this private eastern side of the island. They invited us all over for dinner. They were really nice people. The house had two guest houses. They were located high on the hill over looking the bay. Just two strips of concrete is use for a road to the private homes very steep. Just breath taking views. We could see Mystique from their front window. We met their daughter Gale and son-in-law Ben. Ben had never been on a sailboat before and Gale loved to sail. Carl & I offered to take them for a sail the next day, so we took them to White bay. They took us to some local bars and introduced us to the owners. We had a great day.

Jost Van Dyke:
Great Harbour: Known for Foxys Bar/Restaurant and worldwide reputation for having great beach parties. As I approached the bar I noticed a older man tying two ropes together. He looked like a local fisherman. I stopped to say good day. The man was really friendly. He had a black Lab dog sitting by his side. Do you know what kind of dog this is? I replied yes a Black Lab, I have one aboard. He said this is a “Island dog” do you know why I know that? No I said, why? 1st of all he is black, 2nd he sits around all day on his ass doing nothing. 3rd thing is he can’t tell you who his daddy is! He told me a few more jokes and I was on my way. I stopped at the bar to get a beer. Somehow I had a feeling that guy wasn’t just a local fisherman. The bartender told me he was Foxy himself. I was very luck to met him. What a cool old rich man!!!!
White Bay: Home of the famous Soggy Dollar Bar. They started the original painkiller drink, a very popular drink for all the tourists. This place has one of the most beautiful beaches in all of the Caribbean. The beach was packed with all ages.

Virgin Gorda:
The “fat virgin”, As Columbus called the island because of its resemblance from the seaward to a fat women lying on her back. I couldn’t see it, but if Columbus said so its so!
The Baths: Located on the southwest tip of the island are these really unusual formations of large granite boulders. Where the sea washes in between the huge rocks, large pools have been created where shafts of light light shine upon the water. We hiked all through the large baths. At the end there was a large sandy beach where there was real good snorkeling. It was a beautiful day.
Spanish Town: Not really one of the nicer anchorages. Lots of traffic coming in and out of the harbor. We didn’t go ashore here other than to check out through customs.
Bitter End: This island has the Bitter End Yacht club that offers lots of amenities to the boaters. Nice beaches, pool, beach front villas, scuba diving. They even have a outside movie every night. I got to see the Chipmunks. This is our last stop in BVI. Carl and I decided go on ahead without our friends to ST Martin. It’s a 80 mile crossing we will sail all night and arrive in the morning. We can fly out of St Martins and we need to start making our arrangements to fly home to the states for Chris’s & Amanda’s wedding.

Norman Island:
The Bight: This island is known for the famous bar called the Willy-T. it’s a floating boat. Lots of crazy spring break parties go on at this place. Willy will give any girl that jumps off the top deck “without her top on” free drinks for the rest of the night! They had an album of pictures of the past. CRAZY PLACE.

There are three caves that you can snorkel in. I got to swim with a sea turtle. We were as close as 1 foot away from each other. He was sooo cute, I wanted to touch him but didn’t.

ST Thomas USVI

ST THOMAS USVI.
As we approached the St Thomas Harbor we could see the bay filled with boating traffic. Everything from real small motor boats to cruise ships. The water is deep blue and calm. The city streets line the ocean front. You can hear commotion, traffic and sirens all of which we have almost forgotten. Our hook is now dropped so close to three cruise ships, we could hear the music playing aboard as if we were there. “Round and round and up and down we go again” still rings in my ears. It’s a party place and you fell it I your bones.The city streets are a tourists dream, duty free name brand stores everywhere. The alcohol is cheap if you buy it from a liquor store. But to eat or drink anything in a bar or restaurant they just rip you off.
We went to Black Beards castile high on a hill looking down over the bay. Walked all over the place then went back to the boat to rest.

The next day was Carl’s birthday, we took him to Hooters for drinks and appetizers. The Hooter girls all sang happy birthday. Carl enjoyed that! Next we went to the marina and met up with Off-line and Nudula to play pool and talk boater talk. The US Virgin Islands is nice but we have seen enough. Next stop the British Virgin Islands.

Spanish Virgin Islands 2nd island

Isla De Culebra

Christopher Columbus was the 1st non-Indian to visit this island in 1493 on his second voyage to the new world. Later Sir Henry Morgan and other pirates used the island as an hideout. Legend has it some of their treasure is still buried there. Culebra means snake in Spanish, the name describes the shape of the island. It’s a small island about 7 miles long by 3 miles wide. The bay that we anchored in is in the town of Dewey.

Dewey is much cleaner then Isla de Viegues. The small restaurants and bars line the waterfront, we can pull right up to them with our dinghies and tie to the dock. Green rolling hills cover the island. There are way fewer rain falls much calmer anchorage. I like it so much better then Vieques. It could be that I still have a bad taste in my mouth from loosing our gas can for the dinghy.

We met up with a single manned sailboat Pharos, sailed by one lady named Susie. Her boat is the same size as ours, it’s increasable that she can sail it alone. She hangs in with the best of us! We have been enjoying her company now for about three days. Carl & Robert rented diving equipment to clean the barnacles off the bottom of our boat. They grow incredibly quick. We should be off to St Thomas tomorrow.

Spanish Virgin Islands

Now that our boats are in full working condition, Mystigue needed to sail south as soon as possible. The Pas De Deux and Mystique still remain sailing buddies, sailing together when the weather permits for as long as possible. Two other boats The Nebula and Off-Line that we met in Ponce are also sailing south leaving around the same time on their own schedule. I’m sure we will meet up again soon.

This crossing was much shorter. We left at 4:oo am and got to the Spanish Virgin Islands before dark. No problems knock on wood. The water is much clearer then Puerto Rico and it rains a lot more.

The Spanish Virgin Islands are broken down into four separate areas. Isla Palominos, La Cordillera, Culebra and The Vieques. Because, of our location and the weather we started in Isla De Vieques, sometimes called La Isla Nina (daughter Island) referring to it’s relationship with Puerto Rico. Real pirates came frequently to this island a lot to re-supply their vessels, because in those days there were an abundance of fish, birdlife and timber.

This bay is called Bay of Esperanza a small fishing anchorage. The boys talked me into renting a bicycle and riding to Isable Segunda. I thought it was a good idea until I found out that it’s like renting a bicycle in San Francisco! All up steep hills. 6 miles one way. All this to see an old fort and a lighthouse? They almost killed me. Other ladies that we have met along the way envy me being with three such good looking men, but if they only knew how much work it is to keep up with them they would wish me luck!!! They also did it to me in the rain forest in Puerto Rico. A half an hour hike turned into a three hour adventure all steep up and steep going down. People were stopped all along the way huffing and panting. The guys just pushed on. At the end young people took pictures so they could remember surviving through the trail.

When we arrived back to our boats we could see that the Pas De Deux’s anchor had dragged about 25 yards. The winds picked up to 30 knots in the bay while we were gone. The only thing that stopped their boat from heading out to sea was a large sand-bar and a bunch of cruisers. They have a 7’ foot draft on their boat and the sand-bar was like only 4 to 5 foot to the waterline. This means that the boat was grounded. (Grounded really bad.) They couldn’t just wait for high tide to get them out. It had the be pushed or pulled out. Along with about 7 other cruisers, including the guys from The Nebula and Offline, they were here, I knew we would meet again. Everyone worked diligently to free the Pas De Deux with no prevail. Dinghies were pushing, sails were flying it was quite a site. Mystique has been grounded before but not like this, this boat was leaning over on it’s side with water coming in at times. After about a hour a big motorboat pulls up to help. They pulled them out in two tries. Yea! their loose! What an ordeal, everyone around knew that their boat dragged anchor. People tend to stay far away from boats that their anchors slip out, everyone was talking. And these guys are real sailors! I guess it happens to the best of us. We both had two anchors out each, ours held, thank god.

While Michiel bought drinks at the local bar for all the men that helped out. Someone stole Carl’s gas can from his dinghy. Without that special connection to the engine the dinghy’s motor wont work. Great that’s our only means of transportation between the boat and shore! This is a small town with no taxis and only one hardware store. He’s not getting me back on a bicycle here again, that’s for sure! I hope we can leave here soon. It’s been raining and blowing hard all day, we also rock-en-roll all night as Mystique makes strange squeaking sounds that will keep anyone awake. The weather will keep us here for awhile now but gives me time to write anyway.