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Snnday-Tuesday March 14-16, 2010

GPS POSITION 18° 19.06 N 64° 27.30W Norman Island BVI

Sunday is a beer day. For one thing the temperature is lower, the sea is calmer and the wind is not too strong. You can feel your body blooming like the opening of a flower. I think it is just your bodies way of saying thank you,

The wind we do have has shifted to the southeast thus in sailing terminology we get lifted allowing us to sail more into the wind. As a result we are now on a course to the southwest shore of Puerto Rico. The worst of our passage is definitely behind us. That is the good news. However, there is some bad news, there is a current on our nose slowing our speed over ground (SOG), speed determined by GPS progress, is 5-6 knots. The log which measures the speed of water flow under the hull registers 7-8 knots. Since the winds are so light at the moment our sailing is not helping.

We now have a manageable time-frame concerning scheduling our flights to Reno from the BVI. John makes dock reservations at Village Cay Marina in Road Town, Tortola starting on the 17^th. The thought of a hamburger or Grouper sandwich with a cold BVI beer is a thought that makes the mouth salivate and significantly lifts our spirits. Unlike the British sailors who were given half pint of Rum a day hundreds of years ago we do not partake on passage, we look to landfall to wet our whistle.

Monday morning and the new southeast wind has continued and increased during the night. John and Deborah do their weather routine. Today the question is do we route south of Puerto Rico or north of Puerto Rico, After much analysis it is decided that it looks marginally better to go north.

Soon we see the color change on the horizon off our starboard bow signaling the immanent, in BD speeds this may mean up to an hour, appearance of Puerto Rico. Sure enough in bright sunshine in a cloudless sky the light brown cliffs of Puerto Rico grow taller and taller over the curvature of the earth, the horizon. From here it seems to take all day to see the north coast of PR. I see a big white vessel out of the corner of my eye. The last time this happened it was US Coast Guard south of San Diego. Sure enough they pull in behind us and reach us on channel 16. They wanted an unbelievable amount of information and for a while it looked like they may board us to search the vessel. In the end John is able to answer all questions and they must have liked his friendly professional attitude; they let us go.

As we make our turn east our SOG soars to 9.5 knots, we definitely have a current behind us. The log now reads its normal 7+ knots. What helps as well is the swell is passing under us from stern to bow which means BD is surfing, sliding down the front side of the swell. This creates brief surging of our SOG to almost 10 knots. Our single head sail is full with a crisp breeze on our starboard beam. A single dolphin swims a few feet off our port beam jumping periodically out of the water and eyeballing us. Sailing lore says if this happens as you near your destination it is sure good luck. We philosophically discuss luck and agree hard sober work increases your chances for good luck. I thank John and Deborah for their excellent seamanship and work ethic. Deborah says she learned long ago when she competed rowing a skull, there is no I in team. If you look in the word team you can find me.

Monday morning I almost oversleep as I bound from bed, it is 4:40 and my 4:30 alarm failed to ring. I know I set it. A quick look reviels the alarm is not on. It is impossible to turn it off unless you are awake enough to enter a 4 digit code. Maybe there is a sea ghost aboard.

I look at the chart table in the salon as I do every morning sipping my first cup of coffee. We have done quite well over night, we are east of Puerto Rico and still doing 9+ knots SOG. John does not look tired; he is excited about returning to the familiar BVI. The morning is awesomely beautiful; the smells and BVI breezes have a strong familiar feel. John says he has a cool plan, we are going to arrive a few hours early so we will clear in on Jost Van Dyke a few hundred yards from Foxy's and go to Foxy's for burger and Foxy draft beer. Then we will dingy down to Soggy Dollar before sailing to The Pirates Bite, Norman Island for the night where we will have dinner and enjoy late night at the Willy T. This we Ed would be able to say he had been to the BVI. He has never been and it would be a shame to have come all this way through all the pain of passaging and not experienced the reason explaining the "why we did it".

Great Harbor has changed little since the last time we were here. There are several new buildings – immigration, bars and restaurants along the dusty sand road at water's edge. There is a nice concrete fuel dock on the west side of the bay; BVI has talked about the need for this for years. They are even selling ice on the side of the road. Years ago we had to walk a mile up island to a place that sold ice. Now we make our own ice on BD. The check-in process is slow, but expected. Foxy's is bigger and more professional; the prices are higher. There are hundreds of articles of clothing hanging from every available spot; most of it signed with names, places, dates and thoughts – some of it X rated. The food is good pub grub and the beer is surprisingly very good, try the dark brown draft. We are back.

Next stop Sandy Dollar. On the way in we noticed the anchorage off White's Beach was full of vessels, so we dinghy-ed over in a fast bouncy ride. As usual the shore is steep; you get out 5 yards from shore in almost waist deep perfect temperature crystal clear blue-green water and quickly step up to shore. The water is deep enough this close to dry beach some large cats are stern anchored just feet from the beach, sweet. Talk about sitting in your cockpit with a drink in your hand people watching just feet away on the beach. The Soggy Dollar is crowed but its only 2 deep at the bar to buy the next drink. We do a round of pain killers, a rum drink with a sweet fruity mixer shaken over ice, and a single malt Scotch for the diabetic. The place has almost not changed at all in 15 years. We take our drinks and meander through the crowd finding a mixture of people from many countries, but most are US. John meets and greats several mates he has not seen in 3 years. From their greeting you would never see a hint 3 years time has passed; it could be since yesterday.

We quickly dinghy back to BD and set sail for Norman Island and the Bite, a big bay with basically 2 anchorages. The one where the Willy T is anchored. This is the floating Caribbean equivalent of a nightclub famous for outrageous behavior. We have heard reports that they have banned young women from diving nude from the upper deck these days. The anchorage near Willy T is almost empty; the anchorage near the Pirates Bite restaurant is nearly full. BD is too big and too heavy to use a mooring ball, so we anchor near the Willy T as close to the mooring ball field as we can.

We all go to the Pirates Bite for dinner. The restaurant is not as crowed as the number of boats at anchor indicate. The music being played tonight is reminiscent of my son's, Kevin's, nightclub, HUSH, in Houston; it urban hip-hop. It seems out of place in the Caribbean but the locals are black West Indians. We ask what has happened to the steel drum music. We are told that they play different kinds of music every night; Saturday night is steel drum and tonight's music was selected by the bartender, a young black West Indian girl.

The dinner quality and price was on a par with mainland US. What happened to the cheap simple Caribbean menu? This is understandable as most of the boaters are doing a week's vacation charter, they are renting a bare boat to save money, but they are finding enough money to eat out and not heavily provision the boat, cook and clean up aboard.

Next stop the Willy T. The dinghy dock is full; we wedge our dinghy between 2 others and step on board. Where did all these people come from? I guess many of the boats in the other anchorage had sundowners and snacks before going to the T. It turns out to be a moderately slow night. Wednesday night is Saint Patrick's Day and that should be the big night here. We do not see anyone doing body shots on the bar but the people watching on the dance floor is entertaining. It is relaxing watching people from different countries, languages and cultures coming together to enjoy the Caribbean Island fun. We have had a long day and tomorrow is a big day so we pile back into the dinghy and off we go to BD.

God Bless Bella Donna