Day 5- Trellis Bay to Leverick Bay

Today we got up early and snorkeled Monkey Point, Guana Island. We saw a squad of squid and lots of jellies. We also saw a sea turtle as we grabbed the mooring ball. We also saw spot fin butterfly fish, trumpet fish, parrot fish, blue tang, and other reef fish. 

After monkey point, we sailed to the Baths, Virgin Gorda. We hiked to the top and had lunch up there. They had a freshwater pool and it was so nice to swim there and to be able to just stand in the water and not have to keep swimming just to stay in place. The Baths are a collection of massive boulders leaning against each other that you can crawl through and find various caves, caverns, and beaches. 

We sailed around Virgin Gorda from the Baths to Leverick Bay. We motor sailed because we were slightly behind schedule. 

We moored in Leverick Bay around 6. We are getting fresh water tomorrow- we have about 1/3 of the water left which is pretty good! When we were here last time (about 11 years ago), they had a big party going on at the marina with guys on stilts and everything. It’s pretty quiet tonight so I’m not sure if they don’t do that anymore or if it’s a different night...

Day 4- Great Harbour to Trellis Bay, Beef Island

Today, we slept in a bit then headed to the Wreck of the RMS Rhone to snorkel. We saw sea turtles and there was a barracuda under our boat 😳 

After snorkeling, we put up the sails and headed to Trellis Bay. Grant and Dad took the dinghy out to look at the boats that were beached after Irma. There is one boat that was carried about 1/3 of the way up the mountain! 

We had a pretty low key night. After dinner, we went to throw the excess food in the ocean, and there were three large fish right under the boat. We think they’re either blacktip reef sharks or remoras but were not sure. We threw the few grains of rice we had at them and watched them swim for a bit. They were really close to the surface, probably about 5-10 feet under the boat. 

Day 3- TheBight to Great Harbour, Peter Island

Mom was up at 6 am and was thrilled that we have an electric coffee maker- this was where we dropped the coffee maker on day 1 of the last trip! It is extremely important to keep the coffee maker onboard as there’s no Walmart anywhere nearby!

We went snorkeling at The Caves, which are the inspiration for Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Sadly, the reef is about half dead. The fish were interesting, but it is much less vibrant than it was previously. We then dinghied back to Wavelength and motored to The Indians. We were so close to the coral- there were times when if you used your arms to swim, you would have hit it. The current was also trying to push us into the rocks. We survived though! There was a lot of fan coral and schools of fish. We saw sea urchins, brain coral, damsel fish, parrot fish, Sargent majors, French grunts, lots of yellow tail snapper, and black tangs (Dory’s cousins). 

We then swam back to the boat and motored to Great Harbor in Peter Island to the William Thornton. The Willy T was a staple for the last 35 years until it was blown away in the hurricane. The old William Thornton now sits on beach at the Bight and according to news articles, will soon be sold for parts to pay for the new restaurant. We had drinks and dinner there and watched people flip/jump/dive off the top deck. They did more tricks as they drank more- it was pretty entertaining to watch!

We’re back on Wavelength now and are playing cards. Well probably crash early as we had a long day! Mom and I are super fried but everybody got a decent amount of sun today. Thank god we bought sunscreen yesterday! I only wish we had the aloe that the TSA confiscated...

Day 2- Tortola to the Bight

Today, we got our boat, Wavelength. She is a Bavaria nautitich 40 ft catamaran. During hurricane Irma, It was blown around in the storm, demasted, and the Hull was cracked. They hauled her out of the water in October and completely redid her. 

We went to breakfast around 10 and met a nice guy from Australia who was having breakfast with his wife and two young boys. We asked him about the procedures for tipping the waitstaff and started talking to him about the hurricane and the damage it did. Turns out, they left Australia and moved here about 7 years ago. They were evacuated on one of the last flights out- they had to have the private company plane come get them so they could leave. Their house was largely untouched, but they still had to leave Tortola for 6 months to rebuild and have the roads cleared enough for them to get home. 

After breakfast, we went to the pool for a bit then went to checkout the boat. Jalon, the maintenance guy, met us on board. He left and said he’d “be right back.” Three hours later he shows up- we must be on island time! We did the walkthrough and charter briefing. Finally, we headed out of the harbor around 3.30 (it was supposed to be noon).

We sailed to the Bight at Norman Island, the former home of the Willy T. We had 18-20 knots of wind. We topped out at 8.2 knots. We had one reef in the sail and also reefed the jib. We had a brief rain shower. We were a little rusty picking up a mooring ball, but we did alright! It was really windy too and hard to maneuver the boat. 

Once we were stationary (or as stationary as you could be on a boat), lindsay started making her infamous 6-4-4s for Mom and Dad. We polished off the first bottle of rum- don’t worry, it’s very cheap here! 

We had chicken tacos for dinner then stayed up talking for a few hours- til about 11:30, which is really late when a sailor’s midnight is 9 pm and the sun rises at 5. There’s nothing quite like sleeping with a constant breeze and rocking boat- it’ll knock you right out!

Day 1- Atlanta to Tortola

Welcome back! Today we flew to the Caribbean for our next sailing trip. We left the house in Atlanta at 6:30 am. We were on track to be 90 minutes early for our flight until we hit traffics that set us back an hour. 

We got to the parking spot at 8- we were supposed to board at 8.20 and the flight was scheduled to take off at 9. We took took the shuttle from the parking lot to the airport and got there about 8.20. We then had less than 40 minutes for all five of us to get through security. 

Unfortunately, we had three different security clearances: Dad and Lindsay had Clear, Mom and Grant had TSA pre check, and I had... nothing. So we split into our separate lines with the understanding that whoever made it on the plane was going sailing and if you didn’t... we’ll, that sounds like a YP (you problem). 

Lindsay and Dad got on board first. Grant, Mom, and I all made it through security at the same time. We boarded the plane at 8:50- a little too close for comfort! The flight went well and 3.5 short hours later, we landed in St Thomas in the USVI. We met the taxi driver and took off to the port to get the ferry to Tortola (BVI). Just in case we weren’t sure we landed in the correct place, the first sign we saw after deplaning advertised free rum samples if you rented a car. 

The water was a little rough while on the ferry. We saw over a dozen boats washed ashore and left after hurricane Irma. The owners of these boats can’t afford to pull them out of the water so they have no choice but to leave them them. Maritime law states that if you are able to salvage a boat, then you own it. It only costs a few thousand dollars in crane fees and the complete refurbishment of the boat!

The local people are still trying to recover from the storms nine months ago. Most houses we saw don’t have roofs. Cars look like they’ve been in horrific accidents. Our taxi driver said it took 6 months for the cables to be fixed so he could have electricity back in his home. 

We made it to the hotel and walked around a bit. We are staying just for the night at the hotel in Nanny Cay. We saw our boat, Wavelength, in the harbor took. She becomes ours for the week tomorrow at noonish- we’re on island time though so you never know!

Our WiFi is very spotty so please be patient with me! I will update the blog as often as possible 🙂