Month: April 2017

…Salt crystals forming in the pond…

This interesting building has 4 equal rooms, with an exterior door leading outside from every room. there are two large windows in each room. Inside, there are doorways leading between every room. We are left wondering why the owner went to such great expense and effort to install so many doors. The next 4 photos are all of the same house.

The moderate ESE winds were gusting around both sides of the high hills, making for a somewhat rolling night on anchor. Only two boats were anchored with us overnight and several boats came for a day stop. The anchorage is very deep so we dropped 150 feet of chain to anchor in sand.

What fun we all had at the Michael Beans “It’s Happy Arrr” Show at Leverick Bay! Michael is a great musician who draws in the crowd and then never lets them go. It is a fun filled night of singing, dancing and just having a good old time for pirates of all ages.  Oh, yes, at the end of the show, there was a conch horn contest. Team Six Knots was well represented. Meloney of Fezywig won the women’s division and was given a 6 pack of beer and a T-shirt. Hayden won the men’s section and for that was awarded a bottle of signature rum. Team Six Knots did not waste any time on that bottle, as we worked it down and partied on. What a fun time!

These photos and the video at the bottom show the good time we all had. Thanks to Meloney for the video footage. Great show, Michael Beans. Thank you!

Guy’s Trail is a two-mile tour that climbs the 455-foot hill behind The Bitter End Yacht Club from north to south. Hike along with us!

This trail is steeper than it looks!

Saba Rock was truly a rock when we were first here in 1986. It was the site of Bert Kilbride’s famous dive shop. Now it is a classy spot with hotel rooms and lovely outdoor spaces and a great dinghy dock for happy hour.

Looking east across the reefs

View from the trail left to right, Prickly Pear Is., Eustacia Is., Necker Island, with Saba Rock in the foreground.

Don and Meloney, our fun buddy boat team on Lagoon 380 called FEZYWIG, created this very cool video of the great time we all had at the Virgin Gorda 50th anniversary Easter Monday Parade. Please enjoy this three minute video. Meloney is a great photographer and Don is a master with Adobe Premier and video editing. GREAT JOB Team FEZYWIG! Thank you very much for this effort.

The newly crowned Ms.Virgin Gorda

Thanks to “The Welcome” (a glossy magazine-sized monthly guide to the BVI’s) we made plans to attend the 50th Anniversary Grand Easter Parade which was celebrated in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, on Easter Monday. Our travels included dinghying to the Bitter End, riding The North Sound Express 11 a.m. ferry to the Gun Creek Customs and Immigration dock across and finding a substitute taxi to replace the one who did not materialize. Our new driver was very informative and helpful. He was also a good driver, which we appreciated on those incredibly steep mountain roads. We learned that the parade would probably not start on time at 1:00 p.m., that it would move very slowly. and that we would be welcome to walk along with the participants. He was correct on all points. He also told us that the parade would form again around 10 p.m. and repeat the entire route. We did not stay to find out. When we arrived in Spanish Town, we listened to a local band at The Yacht Harbor, walked through the parade staging area and enjoyed lunch. The parade started around 2 p.m. and was still moving along in fits and starts at 5:00 when we called for our cab. There was a great sense of celebration and family involvement. We were outsiders and spectators yet we felt very welcome. After going to the parade grounds, we walked back through the parade to meet our cab and saw many more of the floats, bands, dancers and ethnic groups represented, which included local residents originally from the Philippines and from Dominica. The 6:30 ferry took us back to The Bitter End, after a long and very interesting day!

The stilt walkers are known as mocko jumbies.

We enjoyed the steel drum band!

Costumed participants are called masqueraders and groups of marchers and dancers are known as troupes.

Miss British Virgin Islands, from Tortola, was crowned in August 2016 and competed in the Miss Universe Pageant  in January in The Philippines. A bake sale was held recently to raise money for the local pageant. We did not learn the details of Mr. G.Q.’s future plans.

Each troupe or band would stop periodically to give a performance and then resume marching.

Many participants were wearing this shirt. We finally asked what it says and what it means….. “Don’t Ass Me Up” means “Don’t mess with me and my goals.”

After marching the length of the parade, these enthusiastic and well-trained percussion students from Tortola performed at the parade grounds, too.

Total concentration from this young musician.

Events earlier in April that were part of the Easter Festival included the Prince and Princess Show, the Ms.Virgin Gorda Pageant, the Calypso Monarch Competition, the Fisherman’s Jamboree, and the Cultural Food Fair. We are so glad we could be part of the 50th Anniversary Grand Easter Parade, the largest event of the year in Virgin Gorda!

The best way to show off the Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands is via this photo essay. This is our 9th visit to the BEYC and we love it here. Take a look at these photos and I am sure you will see why we enjoy this location which is only accessible by boat. Enjoy….

…Radeen and our BVI permit…

With our mission completed of acquiring boat permits from the National Trust of the British Virgin Islands, over in Road Town, it was now time to move into the BVIs and snorkel. After a very very rolling night and very little sleep off Sandy Spit due to the North Swell wrapping around and rocking our boat from gunwale to gunwale, we headed east for Guana Island and Monkey Point. Our $150 permit allows us to use the many mooring balls placed through out the BVIs at all the key snorkeling and diving locations. You are allowed to take a RED mooring ball and secure your yacht to this for 90 minutes while you jump in the water and check out the beautiful fish and coral reefs. Our first mooring we used was at Monkey Point and our stern was only about one boat length off the rock with the waves breaking on the rocks. The swell was rolling us back and forth here as well and we were at first concerned about being so close to the rocks. But we lowered the dinghy, our diving platform and we jumped into the water. What a great feeling snorkeling right off your boat onto a beautiful coral reef in crystal clear water, and it is only 10 am in the morning. Sooooooo many reefs and so little time. Radeen and I love to snorkel. Check out these GoPro photos…

So, welcome to the Bitter End Yacht Club, we will try to do a photo essay on this location as you can see, it is very special to us and we really love it here. Here is our happy Champagne and OJ toast “selfie” with the BEYC over our sholders.

The BVIs are only 35 miles long from end to end, so you can cover this area in a day.

Our first visit here was in 1986!

We left St. Thomas on a calm day with 10 knots of southeast winds and continued to push east towards the British Virgin Islands. There are several places to check into the country, and we chose to sail to Jost Van Dyke, using Foxy’s dinghy dock and of course a Carib Beer at Foxy’s. The check in took about 45 minutes of paperwork and processing in a very relaxing manner and friendly manner. Our cost was based on the ship’s gross tonnage and for us at 17,500 pounds that was $21.  The maximum fee is $55.

We are very excited to be here and to finally reach what is considered to be one of the dream locations for cruising. We have been here eight times before on charters and land based vacations, but this time is is far better being on our own boat and our own schedule. Take a look at these photos and you will see why boaters love to sail in the British Virgin Islands. The scenery, water color and beaches……

Our first challenge was to buy the one year permit for private vessels that will allow us to use the daytime dive moorings in 70 different locations. When we checked in at Jost Van Dyke, the officials there are only allowed to sell the weekly permits for $50, and not the annual permits. The only place you can buy them is at the BVI National Parks office in Road Town. That would be on the other side of Tortola and we were on the Jost side. No problem, Mon….we moved over to Cane Garden Bay and headed into town where we hired a cab ($24 over and $24 back) and bought the permit at the National Trust Park office. Bill on buddy boat mv/SEA STAR ran along with us to keep us company and to help out. We bought three one year park permits, one for each boat: Fezywig, Sea Star and Island Spirit. This all took about 1.5 hours and we were back to our boats soon after noon……

We then dropped the mooring balls and we headed out to Sandy Spit where we could play on the beach, swim, snorkel and enjoy the beautiful waters. The winds were calm, 5-10 knots, but the north swell is building and it is a bit rolly here off the cay where we are spending the night, after watching a spectacular sunset over Jost Van Dyke.

One of the most interesting things that happened was when we left St. Thomas and headed out to the BVIs, we were passed by an incoming cruise ship. We actually had to divert and then take his stern as he was going 12 knots and we were going 6 knots. We could not cross his bow, so we let him cross us. Good idea, right? The ship was also on starboard, so he had the right of way. We were soooooo close, it was very interesting. We had fun waving to all the poeple standing on their balconies and waving back at us. Here are the photos of the crossing….

Now, lucky for us, the large cruise ships do not cruise into the BVIs and anchor off the small islands like Sandy Spit and Sandy Cay. The only way to get here is to hire a small boat or charter a boat or bring your own boat or book a very small cruise ship. Life is good in the BVIs…

Two more days of calm winds and snorkeling and then we will move into North Sound and base off the Bitter End Yacht Club. We may just stay there a few days for some windy and rainy weather….For now, it was a Sandy Spit kind of day….

We officially arrived in the United States Virgin Islands when we dropped anchor off Water Island, near St. Thomas. We anchored next to Island Packet 38 ULLR, Cristine and James who alerted us to the fun Sunday afternoon on Honeymoon Beach. With this news our “Team Six Knots” pushed hard and we joined the party and enjoyed swimming, paddle boarding, beach walks and cold beers. What a blast, welcome to the USVI and we all needed this nice break after pushing 1,568nm from Florida to reach here. Now, we will spend 6 weeks exploring the USVI and the BVIs! What a treasure this will be. Here are some photos of pushing east from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands as we powered on past Sail Rock and Saba….