First Visitor of 2013

With our delayed launching we were still in Leverick Bay in the BVI taking on water and fuel and cleaning the boat as the time came for our friend Diane to come spend a couple weeks with us. Our plan to meet her in St. Thomas was not going to work out so a call to her and an added flight to Virgin Gorda with a taxi ride brought her to us in Leverick Bay. It was a fortuitous event as now all our sailing back to the USVI would be down wind and with the waves to our back. We were excited to show her some of the BVI and started in North Sound with a local pirate show, Happy Ahrrrr, in Leverick and a Tarpon feeding at Saba Rock,

Diane arrives

A ranbow herolds Diane's arrival

The Happy Ahrrrr show

Michael Bean is smoking!!

 

 







a great burger at the Fat Virgin, and a hike around the Bitter End Yacht Club.

The Fat Virgin has the best burgers in the BVI

The hike on Bitter End

We worked our way around the North side of Tortola with a stop at Trellis Bay to see the Last Resort and happy hour at the Loose Mongoose. We spent the afternoon at the Scrub Island Resort in the pool and hot tub with drinks and snacks before mooring at Marina Cay and seeing where the movie Virgin Islands was filmed with a great sunset at their bar.

Relaxing at Scrub Cay

The infinity pool at Scrub Resort



Cane Garden Bay Sunset

Callawood's distillary

At Cane Garden Bay we walked the beach and toured Collawood’s Rummery started in the late 1800s, the only distillery left in the Virgins.

Bottles of Rum

The still made in the late 1800s



The buffet

The sign says it all

On the way to Jost Van Dyke Island we stopped at Sand Cay, a little sand island which is now part of the park system, and hiked around the island. We moored in Great Harbor and took the dinghy in to Foxy’s for his all you can eat barbeque buffet.



JJ with his dog tiller in a kayak at Maho

We checked out of the BVI and sailed to St Johns in the USVI to check in and spent the day in Maho Bay, one of our favorite places. However the north swell had really stirred up the water so the visibility on our snorkeling was really bad. We hiked Francis Bay and visited the Eco Lodge before heading on to Caneel Bay.

I love these cute snails

Erin loves the dive

It is beautiful down there

From Caneel Bay we took the dinghy to town and spent the afternoon and next day exploring the town. While Diane and Leslie toured the town, Carl took the opportunity to go on a 3 tank dive with Cruz Bay Watersports on the South side of St. John which was a good first dive of the year.

Aug, Peg, and us on Midnight Rambler

We sailed to Christmas Cove where we met Aug and Peg for an evening of catching up, food and drinks. The next day we were off to Long Bay in St. Thomas where we anchored in our old spot inside the pirate ship fleet. As it was late, checking out Charlotte Amelia would have to wait a day.

That is some heavy equipment

After hiking around town in the morning we took the dollar bus up to Crown Bay to pick up our water maker. It was a good thing we brought 2 duffle bags as the two packages weighed 100 lbs.! Carl was able to put about 90 lbs. of equipment in the bags and carry them down to the marina a half mile away. There after lunch Diane and Leslie watched most of the equipment while Carl took the dollar bus back to the dinghy with about 40 lbs. of equipment to drop off at the boat and then bring the dinghy to the marina to pick up the ladies and the rest of the equipment.

The Rising Sun 10th largest yacht in world

The 3 schooners

Our last stop would be Brewers Bay.  On the way we passed 3 old schooners anchored off of Hassel Island, the Virginia, the Armistead, and the Harvey Gamage. They are some classic schooners! We anchored in one of our spots from last year and immediately went for a swim in the clear warm water.  We recognized some boats of people we met from last year so will be making neighbor calls.   Diane will fly back and we will start figuring out the water maker and how it goes together.