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Published: April 30th 2008
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The remainder of our visit to the British Virgin Islands went by in a flash. A lot of lazy days snorling, eating and drinking. We finally caught up with Geoff and Merel from Miss Molly and spent some great evenings with them and son James. One of the highlights was going across to Marina Cays for happy hour and be entertained by this fellow who had the whole one man band thing happening. He had us all singing along with our clappers and Rummmmm…….and some lethal cocktails.
We also spent a couple of nights at Gorda Sounds at the Bitter End. It was a gorgeous spot with a calm anchorage and stunning views. We went for a snorkel with Geoff and Merel to find some old cannons (I think they are fairly old) on the reef. There are no markers so I was amazed that Si located one.
From Gorda Sounds we had to go back to Spanish Town to extend our visa and collect Greg and young Danielle on Cadans. Our deflag papers had not yet been received so our departure date to the Panama was reliant on these being sent to Tortola. So with nothing more to
do we headed back to Norman Island for the weekend. We secured our favourite anchorage in front of all the mooring buoys. The four of us had a BBQ off the back of Woodsia before heading over to Willie T’s. It was a fun night with lots of very drunk people to watch. Their rum punch is rather lethal. Poor Si played rescue ranger for most of the evening. He rescued some very drunk guy who had started his tender and somehow got a line caught around his prop. Everyone just thought he was waving. So as he slowly started to drift away, Si decided he had better go get him. Then half an hour later, someone had let loose a dingy, so off Si went again…very heroic.
The next day Geoff and Merel popped by and we had a FKG (Simpson Lagoon, St Martin) reunion. Geoff took us out to snorkel around the 4 Indians (rock formation). It was hard to get across as we had six in a dingy and the wind had picked up. I thought the snorkeling was amazing and well worth the journey.
All too soon we had to leave Norman Island and
head back to Tortola to pick up our deflag papers (that had finally arrived) and prepare Woodsia for the trip to the Panama. We had originally planned to head out on Wednesday but due to some large swell in the Caribbean Sea, we ldeparted on Friday 18th April.
So here we are on passage. We have had very light winds so we are only averaging 5knts an hour. It will add an extra two days to our initial seven day passage. Must say I don’t mind too much as the conditions have been perfect. We did have some reservations about only the two of us doing the passage but it was definitely the right decision.
The night watches are working well. We generally go three on three off. We still get our eight hours sleep; it is just spread out during the day. At the start of the passage we had a full moon with the light reflecting off the ocean. Now that the moon is setting later, the stars are out and you can see the phosphorous in the waves. It really is beautiful and it makes getting up at 3am nearly bearable. We have seen many
Dolphins at Play
They stayed around the boat for over 3 hrs a big ship pass us in the night with only one getting a bit close for comfort.
Si has become a nudist and not sure if he will ever be able to adjust in the real world . He definitely has adopted that Albi Mangles look. We caught our first fish off the lure that Trevor made us. It was a good size tuna but was abit taken aback after watching the poor thing suffer. I would have taken a photo but it was all a bit messy. I think we have to work out a better system. In the end, it did taste delicious. Unfortunately we have had no such luck since.
The highlight of the trip was waking up one morning I woke up to find the boat surrounded by about 30 plus dolphins. Some where playing on the bow while others where surfing the waves and getting some serious air. There were a number of mums with babies…very cute. They hung around for about three hours. They were amazing to watch. We sat up on the bow and they were right at our feet. It was sad to see them go !!!
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