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Wednesday March 28, 2012

It is time to leave this resort and visit the most remote island in the BVI, well the most remote regularly visited by charter yachts. I guess Soggy Dollar is at one end and Anegada is at the other. The Scrub early morning routine is becoming way too predictable. First there is coffee and tigger bites in the quiet calm of the first light. As the sun rises a gentle breeze begins to blow; it will build to a 16 to 20 knot trade wind by 10 AM. I help Deborah thread the sun screen into the track on the cockpit roof. Without it the sun is too hot and burning. John and Don have taken the dinghy to Road Town to fetch an air conditioning system sensor; one of our units is not shutting down the water chiller before the emergency freeze sensor shuts it off.

We finish breakfast and shortly there after the dinghy arrives back to BD. After an hour or so the dinghy is hoisted with the boom crane and we are preparing to leave the dock. The Scrub dock hands are the friendliest and efficient we have encountered in the BVI. 

We pass Scrub Island on the lee side to allow us to secure the new inflatable bumpers and coil the dock lines. We will not need them as we must anchor at Anegada. The usual passage to Anegada is go to Biter End and spend the night and get up early the next morning and set sail. This way you can get to Anegada if the trades are blowing from the usual direction. 

Today the trades are blowing from the northeast which probably means we can not make Anegada sailing without at least on tack, probably more than one. We do our best to sail close to the wind and through The Dogs, a place where diving is popular. We end up tacking a few times to clear Dogs and dive boats. Somewhere outside the entrance to Bitter End we make out tack to starboard and lay a line as close to the wind as possible without sacrificing boat speed. Our best SOG, speed over ground measured by GPS, is 9.5 knots. The sea state is surprisingly flatter than expected.

Less than an hour later Anegada is visible on the horizon. The highest land on the Island is probably 14 feet above sea level. The Island is just some sand on top of a coral reef. The highest point on the Island is one of the now many structures. Our current tack is taking us to the west end of the Island; our goal is to anchor near the Anegada Reef Hotel, Lowell's place. At the point we judge it is better to tack than continue we tack to port. It is always a little disappointing when after trimming the sails on the new tack you are instead of heading for your destination you are head too far the other side. As a result, we tack several more times before trying to lay a line through the narrow crooked channel marked with red and green buoys. This time the wins gods do not cooperate and we have to lower our sails and motor in.

Hurricanes over the last several years have deposited more and more sand into the anchorage. Closer to shore is better as you can get out of the strong trade winds, but where it used to be over 6 feet, it is now 5 feet. Our keel needs 6+ feet. Compounding the task today there are a lot of boats here already. We motor around trying to find an appropriate hole where we do not run aground. Success we think; we made it into a satisfactory hole. After several attempts and failures to set an anchor, John dives to take a look and try to set the anchor by hand. Hard to believe, but the sand is not deep enough over the hard slippery coral to set the anchor. We fall back to a usable position far out in the anchorage. The wind is howling and the sea is bouncy, but the anchor sets the first try. John dives it to satisfy himself as he is already wet.

It has been a long day; we drink to the sunset and enjoy one of Deborah's delicious dinners.

God Bless Bella Donna