Last year a few of us chartered a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez and had an amazing time. I posted a trip report here in EDF:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/79...-cortez-50776/
This year we decided to do it again, only this time we chose the British Virgin Islands for our destination. Since our last trip, I was fortunate enough to cross paths with de captain, whose trip report about sailing around the world was one of the best threads i've read on 2+2. De captain was in Vegas for the WSOP and had a chance to meet most of the degenerates i've met on this forum who have become my very close friends. When the topic of our planned sailing trip to the BVI came up, he suggested that we start in St. Thomas, where he lives on his 40' Ketch named Grace. From there we could sail over to Tortola and pick up our boat, and from there we could sail around the BVI drinking and being merry. This sounded pretty incredible to me, so we agreed to do exactly that. Remembering that Lacky had expressed disappointment over not being able to join us last year, I PM'd him to see if he could join us and he signed on as well. So, with much less difficulty than last year, we had our crew. Our only deficiency was an extra female to balance the list since Apathy's roommate from last year's trip is now living in New York and was unable to join us. We repaired the deficiency with the help of Usher's special lady friend, who invited one of her lady friends.
The Crew
Between the two sailing vessels we had enough room to comfortably sleep 10 people. From our last trip we had:
The Usher and his SLF
J
J's SLF
Me and my SLF
And Apathy pictured here with the 3 prior suspects
New on this year's trip would be de captain (pictured here enjoying the benefits of being De Captain)
Lacky (pictured here with The Usher)
And Usher's SLF's lady friend (pictured here with the other girls while de captain again enjoys the benefits of being De Captain)
The Sailing Vessels
This year instead of one boat, we would have two. We again decided to charter a catamaran due to it's size advantages, though we upgraded to a Leopard 46, built by Robertson and Caine. Though only 3 feet longer and 2 years newer than last year's cat, it was a significant upgrade. It had a much larger salon, was a bit faster under both sail and power, had an improved cockpit and bimini layout, and most importantly had a deisel generator giving us the ability to have full electrical power and even air conditioning.
As is always the case with a catamaran, the trampoline between the the two hulls served multiple functions.
It was used for bouncing
Dancing
Chillin'
Swizzle time (a term for happy hour borrowed from the now defunct Windjammer Cruises)
And passing out
Oh, I almost forgot the most popular function of the trampoline
The catamaran's name was the Selkirk Grace and it slept 8 of us. While we spent most of our party time on the cat, Lacky and de captain slept on the other Grace (pictured here sailing under jib 'n jigger)
Grace is a beautiful sailboat. We all spent a few evenings before and after the BVI portion of the trip drinking on her deck and my SLF and I along with J and his SLF called her our home for one night. I can see why de captain chose her to carry him around the world.
Omar
But before the good times pictured above could begin, we had the small problem of hurricane Omar to deal with. Shortly after our arrival, tropical storm Omar was upgraded to hurricane status with a predicted landfall on top of our heads on the same day we were supposed to pick up our catamaran.
De captain took all necessary precautions to brace Grace to face Omar and the rest of us took shelter in our hotel rooms. There is a real-time account of the ordeal in OOT posted by de captain. He also posted a photo of Grace readied for the storm, which is one of the few photos taken during that portion of the trip. We do have a few group shots from the night before the hurricane, though, at de captain's home bar.
Getting underway from St. Thomas to Tortola
Once the coast was clear we piled 10 people and all our gear onto Grace and de captain shuttled us from St. Thomas to the west end of Tortola where we cleared customs. There he dropped off me and my SLF and proceeded around the island to Road Town Harbor on the other side. We took a taxi over there and started the formalities of getting onto the boat a day and half late while the rest of the group made their way to meet us.
Here is the Mooring base marina at Road Town Harbor
Because it was late in the day, we had to stay in the marina for the first night. We tied up Grace to Selkirk Grace and got drunk .
Norman Island
The next morning we finally set sail. Here's The Usher hard at work preparing for our departure:
We had a beautiful sunny day with 8-12 knots of wind that carried us on a beam reach all the way to Norman Island. Norman Island is also known as Treasure Island... the real Treasure Island, due to all of the loot and booty that may or may not still be buried somewhere nearby. We moored in a picture-perfect bay called The Bight and enjoyed the benefits of being there 2 days after a hurricane... it was practically deserted.
Pirates, a small restaurant/bar at the Bight
The sand was like powder and the water was crystal clear
J's SLF enjoys the solitude
My SLF meets a local. He is one of only 5 people that live on the island full time.
It was quite a pleasant evening
snorkeling
The next morning we did a little snorkeling off Norman Island at a place called the Indians. Here I am explaining to de captain that the two most important rules of sailing are to keep the water out of the boat and the Captain on it.
Here are some underwater pics. Most of them were taken at the Indians, but of few of them (like the turtle) were from other spots.
Virgin Gorda
From the Indians we made our way all the way up Sir Francis Drake Channel to the island of Virgin Gorda. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is known for a collection of rocks, grottos, and caves called the Baths. There is a trail from the Baths through the caves to a pristine beach called Devil's Bay Beach. I've had a picture of this beach on my office desk ever since I first visited 2 years ago.
The water is as clear as can be
Apathy at Devil's Bay Beach with one beer for himself and one for himself
All of us enjoying a swim
Usher navigating the trail
A typical Virgin Gorda beach. I'm not sure how a place could be easier to look at.
From the Baths there is another trail that leads up to a restaurant called Top of the Baths. This is the top of the trail...
And a view from the top that includes both Graces
More Virgin Gorda
More of the Baths
A view from where we moored for the night
Partying at Poor Man's bar at the Baths
Geesh, every picture I look at from Virgin Gorda seems worth posting... but this will be the last
Cooper Island
From Virgin Gorda we made the short trip to Cooper Island for our 3rd night. On our way there, Usher, Lacky and J did a little fishing.
I think this was a skipjack Tuna. de captain can correct me if I'm wrong
After releasing the fish we pulled into the anchorage. It was a nice place to anchor and they had a restaurant with a waitress that ended up back on the boat. Apathy couldn't close the deal, though, and deserves public humiliation. (Sorry no pics of the waitress, but i'll make up for it in a minute.)
Here's J and I running over some swizzles to de captain and lacky while they tied up to the mooring.
Sunset at Cooper Island with Grace
De Captain taught me quite a few sailing lessons on the trip, so I was happy to be able to teach him at least one thing. I asked him if there was a name for the support poles that hold up the hard bimini. When he didn't know, I was able to explain to him that they are called "stripper poles."
Jost Van Dyke
The next day we had a nice downwind sail to Jost Van Dyke. The catamaran with the sailplan I had up wasn't very efficient sailing straight downwind. This was about as good as I could do:
But once we passed behind Tortola we were able to get back on a beam reach and in about 12 knots of wind my SLF was able to attain our max speed under sail, 9 knots.
While Virgin Gorda is the most beautiful place i've ever been, Jost Van Dyke is my favorite. The beaches are sublime...
And it's a perfect place to just hang out. Being still is not the same as doing nothing.
It is also home to the Soggy Dollar Bar, a very cool bar that is supposedly the spot where the Painkiller was invented. The Painkiller is a tasty rum drink that definitely kills the pain. At night, the Soggy Dollar becomes a restaurant and the food was surprisingly good. We ended up eating there two nights.
After a night at Jost it was already time to turn in the catamaran. Because we had started 2 days late, we only had 4 nights before turning in the Selkirk Grace. We tried to extend our time, but there was another charter booked. So instead, we asked for another boat for 2 days and the Moorings obliged. Unfortunately, the new vessel had multiple problems including a leak from the waste storage tank into the bilge on the starboard side (the side where my cabin was.) We spent most of our second night at Jost Van Dyke dealing with this and by the time we discovered the broken shower pump and leaking fresh water pump on the port side the next day, I decided to cut our losses and turn the boat back in a day early.
We spent our final night back on St. Thomas on Grace and had another fun evening of drinking and drinking. Despite the complications at the beginning and end of the trip, it was a wonderful time. I'll leave you with some sunset shots, flowers, and group photos. All photographic credit goes to my SLF, with significant contributions from the photo galleries of J's SLF and Usher's SLF. Hopefully Lacky can post of few of his pics in this thread. I hope you all enjoyed the report.
Irieguy
Two Plus Two
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