STT.JVD.CGB.Norman's.Leverick.

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Geo: 18.3435, -64.9791

Whoa! We've been on the MOVE!

With the Christmas winds behind us, we made an aggressive move from Culebra to the BVI with only overnight stops in between. The Northern Swells were coming and we had to get moving towards SXM for Tony's birthday.

We stopped in Brewer's Bay, St. Thomas for one night and then carried on to the BVI. Our first stop was Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. While Tony was ashore to check us in, he bumped into an EYC member or two!!! Bob and Bob (From A dock) were sailing around the BVI for a couple of weeks. Tony came back to the boat to pick me up and we enjoyed a quick catch up with "the Bob's" before we made our way to Diamond Cay to get ourselves out of the incoming northern swell.

We stayed at Diamond Cay for several days, then moved on to our favourite BVI spot - Cane Garden Bay - until the northern swell pushed us out of there too. The pictures don't do it justice, but if you look closely at them, you can see the size of the rolling swells.

So we moved on to Norman Island where we were well protected again. And once the swell died down we continued on to the top of Virgin Gorda again for a stay at Leverick Bay where I got to say "good morning" to Sir Richard Branson in person.

Once we were caught up on laundry, etc, we finally may our way to Anegada - our first stop this season that was a "new" destination to us.


Here's the email I sent home to friends and family:

January, 24th, 2016 - Quick hello from the BVI!

Hello all,

We hope that you are enjoying the New Year and keeping your resolutions! Did you make one? 😉

I know it's been awhile since I've written. We are in the same area as last season, and really, not much is new. I will probably get back into the full updates when we start to cover new territory again.

But let me bring you up-to-date:

Darren's visit over Christmas and New Year was a blast - even though the "Christmas Winds" kept us in Culebra for the duration of his stay. In fact, the winds finally calmed down at the very tail end of his time with us, and we weighed anchor and left the town of Dewey, making our way east, the very next day!

We stopped in Brewer's Bay, St. Thomas (STT), USVI for only two nights. Just enough time to stock up on a few groceries and find a few parts we needed at a marine store. The ocean was as flat as a pancake the morning we left STT. We thought we were heading to St. John USVI for a night or two, but while underway decided that the going was so good we might as well go straight through to the BVI. So we set our course for Great Harbour, on Jost Van Dyke to check in. As Tony was on shore checking in, he bumped into EYC members, Bob and Bob who had moved a boat down to the BVI from Toronto this fall. We had a quick visit with them once we were checked in and then moved over to Diamond Cay between Jost Van Dyke and Little Jost. We heard that a northern swell was coming in and had to find a good spot to hide from it for a few days.

Once the swell subsided, we moved to another favourite spot of ours, Cane Garden Bay, on the island of Tortola. We enjoyed five days there until Mr. Swell returned overnight! He was 24 hours earlier than forecasted. Cane Garden Bay is known to get really rolly in a northern swell, and we saw first hand how fast that can happen! Waves were breaking in front of us and a few even broke behind us! Luckily, we were pointing towards shore (the wind was coming off the land). So the waves were making us surf in place, more than rolling the boat from side to side. Every boat in the harbour was prepping to leave at first light. I have to admit, when I saw waves breaking behind us, I got pretty scared. Tony was a cool as a cucumber. Guess that's what makes us a good team. 😉

So we high tailed it out of Cane Garden Bay and moved to The Bight, at Norman's Island. Blocked by Tortola to the north, we are swell-free!

We'll be making our way further east shortly as we need to stage ourselves for a jump to St. Maarten soon! We have a little birthday party to attend! 😊 Will you be joining us? We hear that the list of attendees is growing! Yahoo!

No pictures have been uploaded yet, but a have a great blog post to share with you by my favourite cruising blogger at Windtraveler.com. Remember that I met her and her daughter, Isla, on the beach at Cane Garden Bay last season? Well, I'm touched and honoured to say, her latest blog posts features little ol' me. 😉

Read Here: http://www.windtraveler.net/2016/01/an-afternoon-away-in-cane-garden-bay.html

Love and Kisses from the crew of Inspiration! xo

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