Sailing March 08
Edit: Here, I'll add the itinerary so you guys have an idea of what's going onActually my schedule went:
Road Town to Norman Island Late start, and got in late.
Norman to The Bitter End on Virgin Gorda. We had planned to stop at the Baths on the way up the channel but we started out with light winds that were from the E not NE to NNE as forecast so we had to beat up the Drake and tack fairly often. Then just as we got to Ginger and Cooper Islands we got hit with a little squall that was the edge of the front and the wind came around to the NE so we still had to beat and tack a lot up the channel to the Bitter End on Virgin Gorda. At the same time we started seeing the big swell that had been predicted and the baths looked really rough so we decided to pass it up (the pictures of the leaping cat are just after the squall passed) We did anchor for lunch in the lee of the point above spanish town and then beat on up to the Bitter End. I was pretty much exhausted after that run. Then I noticed we'd lost the gas tank out of the dinghy so we had to bum a ride into the docks.
I asked around an was told that the closest place to get a tank was at Spanishtown. Silly me I know we lost it in the squall and if I'd noticed we could pulled in and gotten one at lunch time.
Bitter End to Spanishtown marina to Jost Van Dyke This was the day we went around the north end of the islands in the big swells. We had planned to go to Anegada but I had no intention of beating there against 15 to 22 ft swells so we changed the schedule. We were reaching all the way across the north shores and then running down the west side to Jost.
JVD to Sopers Hole We left Jost headed to Cane Garden Bay figuring to stop for lunch and go on to Sopers. Beverle noticed that there were no masts showing as we got close, I looked with the binoculars and it looked like there were breakers rolling in the bay so we cracked off and headed over to Sandy Cay, figured we'd go have lunch on the south beach as it looked deserted. Well, we had dropped sail and were getting close to anchor when I started looking close at the breakers rolling across the beach. Sandy Cay is a very small island, and the swell was pushing breakers around from the east and west and they were actually meeting in the middle. I thought it through and decided that I could eesily time the breakers to get in, but getting out in the dinghy I might look like Tom Hanks in
Castaway so we raised sail and headed to Sopers.
Sopers Hole around St. John and back to to the Bight on Norman. It was a great sail, we were out of the swell on the south side of St. John, but the wind was kicking close to 20kts and had moved back to ESE so once again we had to beat all the way across te south side in the chop. Fun, but we were tired at the end of the day.
Norman to Fat Hogs Bay easy day, again up wind.
Fat Hogs to Salt Island to Road Town last day, started sailing late around 10, got to the docks by 2:30 or 3:00