Tag

Sailing

The Bahamas: High Highs, Low Lows

It seems to me that the Bahamas really is a mixture of high highs and equally low lows.

This dichotomy is pretty well represented in today’s video and blog. After hiding from some windy weather in Aklind Island we headed to Long Island. This was another long day sail of about 65 miles and despite looking forward to exploring what Long Island had to offer, we were feeling quite impatient to just get to the Exumas. They are, after all, considered to be the jewel in the Bahamas crown, so to speak, and I had seen so many gorgeous photos on Instagram of crystalline turquoise water lapping sugar-soft sandy beaches that I just had to get there now. But Bo and Allison managed to convince us to stop at Long Island and, quite frankly, Nick and I couldn’t be bothered with doing an overnighter. So, Long Island it was.

The day was not a good one, weather wise. The wind was fluking around non-stop, and because a bird had stolen our wind vane (or at least, I’m blaming the bird…), we were unable to discern the wind speed and direction, except by using the old fashioned method of looking around us and feeling the breeze on our face. We had enough wind for the Parasailor until we didn’t, and the heavens opened just as Nick was taking the thing down on the foredeck. He got absolutely soaked, bless him.

The sun eventually came back out, but the wind continued to fluke around and we spent the day putting up sails, taking them down, poling out the jib, taking the pole down, turning the engine on, turning it back off, etc etc. Not a ‘set the sails and leave them’ kind of day at all. However, we made it to Clarence Town in daylight- our only real objective- and weaved our way around some coral heads and sand banks before setting anchor in a sandy shallow patch. Bo and Allison had caught a mahi mahi that day, so we launched the dinghy and went over for fish tacos, before heading to bed early. This sailing thing can be really exhausting!

Oh that water!

One thing Nick and I hardly ever do is rent a car and explore an island by vehicle. It just doesn’t happen. It’s expensive for one, and also we’d rather explore the different parts of an island by boat. Also- we’re lazy. However, Bo and Allison’s presence took care of the first problem, as we could split the cost in two, plus we desperately- and I do mean desperately– needed some provisions and there was nothing within walking distance. So, we headed to the car rental place, managed to haggle down from $90 to $45 because the car was in a bit of a state, and took a day exploring Long Island.

We had read that there was the World Freediving Championships taking place that week at the world’s deepest blue hole. This seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up, so we made that our first stop. We weren’t sure how we were going to be able to watch a sport that’s taking place several hundred feet underwater, but figured the atmosphere would be entertaining enough. When we got to Dean’s Blue Hole, however, there didn’t seem to be much activity. Allison was sent to investigate and it transpired that we managed to time our day out with a rest day. Of course we did. One of the competitors, a lovely Italian chap called Davide Carrera, chatted to us for some time about the competition and freediving in general. It turned out his PB was 116 metres!! Like, I can barely dive the anchor when we’re in 4 metres! I guess that’s why I’m not competing in the Freediving World Championships…

Deepest blue hole in the world!

It was a shame we weren’t going to be able to watch some truly awesome freediving, but Nick and Bo got over their disappointment by ordering a surprisingly good burger and beer from a nearby hut on the beach, and we headed off again. This time our destination was on the very northern tip of the island, a resort called Cape Santa Maria in Calabash Bay.

How gorgeous is this beach!?

This was slightly more upmarket than we were used to: lots of white villas sitting on the world’s most perfect beach. Shallow blue water, white sand, swaying palm trees: you name it. We had a decent lunch in the upstairs restaurant before returning back to the boat via a grocery store that from the outside looked very unpromising, but actually stocked loads of good fruit and veg. We stocked up on the important things- chips, dips, beer and cereal- and headed back to the boat.

One of the islands MANY churches. We lost count at 20…

Calabash Bay was so beautiful- not to mention directly en route to Georgetown, our next destination- that we decided to spend the night there. The conditions weren’t quite as ludicrously idyllic as they had been the previous day, but that didn’t matter; we went for an evening pina colada to celebrate Bo and Allison’s anniversary at the bar, had dinner and then the next morning went our separate ways. They were heading to Conception Island (which turned out to be their favourite island in the Bahamas) but Nick’s parents were flying into Georgetown in a few days and we thought they would take a dim view of us not being there to pick them up.

And so, after an enjoyable upwind sail (not a typo- it really was a great sail!) we arrived in Georgetown on Great Exuma, was welcomed by another mad thunderstorm followed by an equally mad sunset, and rolled out the welcome mat for our latest guests.

June 16, 2017 0 comment

Bahamas Favourites

Crazy Storms & Perfect Beaches in the Bahamas

After an overnight stop in Mayaguana, we start the first of many long day sails to get up to the Exumas. The weather turned and yesterday’s bright blue skies and light winds have been replaced with thick cloud cover, making exiting the harbour a stressful experience as we couldn’t see the coral heads with any clarity. The dark patches weren’t visible until we were almost on top of them, and even then discerning the depth was pretty much impossible. However, we had a secret weapon: our friends Bo and Allison on Selah who followed their incoming track, and we simply followed them.

Once we had exited the reef and were on our way, the skies started to darken and the temperature dropped. Even though the camera couldn’t pick it up, we could see lightening and hear thunder all around us. It started to rain heavily and the radar was picking up a dark patch of activity in front of us. The storm front was clearly visible as a black mass ahead. We couldn’t tell which direction it was moving, so we continued on course in the hope it would move out of our way. Although it was a little scary- it was our first time caught in an electrical storm, and I couldn’t help but imagine what would happen if our mast was struck by lightening- it passed soon enough and apart from giving Ruby a thorough rinse, we all came out of it unscathed.

As we arrived into the Plana Cay anchorage in the early evening the clouds started to break up and by the time we were ready for our BBQ’d steak (thanks Costco in Puerto Rico!), we had a beautiful sunset to gaze at as we were gently rocked by the slow waves making their way into the bay.

Selah at anchor

The next morning we woke after a restful sleep to find Selah facing a completely different direction to us. After a few minutes of bleary deliberation, our brains finally fired up and we realised they had rigged an anchor bridle. We were puzzled- there had been a brief moment of rocky swell overnight, but it had barely registered with us; we merely rolled onto our stomachs and went back to sleep. We radioed Bo and he said they had had a terrible night dealing with swell to the point where it was impossible to sleep- hence the bridle, which he rigged at 2am. It was interesting that although we were so close in proximity, the motion of the swell affected our boats in very different ways.

We sailed the relatively short distance to Acklin Island- only about 25 miles. Once again we trolled the line, and this time we were rewarded at last! As we were approaching Atwood Harbour, in only 20 metres of water, the line went and we excitedly jumped up and Nick began the process of reeling the fish in. Our sails had already been dropped, so it was an easy prospect to slow the boat. As Nick brought the fish in, we realised we had a mahi mahi! We were so excited, I cannot tell you. I hurriedly attached the camera to one of the winches in the cockpit, aimed the lens in roughly the direction of the back of the boat, and got down to the business of gaffing the fish.

Well. It’s a lot easier said than done, let me tell you. The fish was flapping madly (understandable) and getting the hook in the gills proved to be impossible- for me, at least. I tried with the net, which turned out to be about 50 times too small to hold a big mahi, and in the end- with no help from me- Nick simply hauled the thing over the guardrails and into the cockpit. Success!

Atwood Harbour turned out to be not only exceptionally beautiful but very well protected from the strong easterly winds that were forecasted over the next few days. We weren’t alone; there were about five other yachts that joined us to wait out the windy weather, and we all got together on one memorable afternoon to have a fresh conch salad, prepared by Fedel, a local guy who was building a little hut (which he hoped to turn into a bar for cruisers) down one end of the curving bay. It was the first time I’d had conch like that and although it was certainly a tasty salad, the conch itself was a little underwhelming. It tasted like tough squid, frankly! But we greatly appreciated the effort Fedel went through to provide the salad for us- he didn’t even accept payment.

In retrospect, Atwood Harbour proved to be one of the most beautiful beaches we visited during our time in the Bahamas, made even more so because of its isolation, and had the weather been less inclement we would have spent a lot more time swimming and diving on the reef that protects the entrance. After five days there, it was time to continue to make our way to Georgetown, and so once again we hauled anchor and sailed somewhere new.

June 10, 2017 5 comments

Favourites Uncategorized

How Much Does it Cost to Sail Around the World?

This is it- the big question that everyone wants answered! How much does it cost to sail around the world? We try and answer this question as best we can in this week’s video.

Here’s a breakdown of what we believe realistic costs to be:

Boat: $30,000 upwards. Most cruisers who are planning circumnavigation or offshore cruising will buy a boat that is considerably more expensive than this. We would recommend that if you’re buying used, it’s best to buy a boat that is already kitted out.
Monthly budget for 2 people in the Caribbean and Europe: $3000
Slush fund: as much as you can afford! We would recommend at least $5000 in savings to deal with any unforeseen circumstances. The older the boat, the more you may need in repairs, maintenance & equipment.
Equipment: we’ve spent about $20,000 on equipment purely designed for offshore and trade wind passage making. Therefore, if you are planning to limit your cruising to a cruising ground such as the Caribbean, you may not need any of these items. They include: Parasailor, SSB radio, hydrovane, Watt and Sea hydrogenerator, wind generator, solar panels, Yellow Brick tracker, laptop for receiving GRIB files at sea (Mac Books are not compatible), flares, and spare parts. This doesn’t include ‘basics’ such as autopilot, AIS, life-raft, EPIRB, sat phone, and code zero sail, fishing rods and lures, BBQ, cool box, etc.

We hope you find this video informative and helpful!

Nick & Terysa

June 10, 2017 0 comment

Bahamas

Boat Work & Fishing Fails in the Bahamas

After sailing over 400nm to Turks and Caicos, we spent a few days in the marina to complete some boat chores. After the Code Zero ended up in the water we added a new job to the list: go up the mast and re-mouse the spinnaker halyard. Nick took that one, with Bo’s help, while I took advantage of fast Wifi and unlimited electricity to do some editing and uploading; since we were heading to the Bahamas, we had no idea when we might next have good internet.

(It transpired that internet in the Bahamas is actually faster and cheaper than many other places in the Caribbean we had visited, possibly because the flat nature of the islands allowed an uninterrupted signal. We bought a BTC sim card with 15GB data at 4G speed for $45… not bad at all!)

Allison flew in from the USA after attending a wedding, which was conveniently timed to coincide with our passage from Puerto Rico and the awesome foursome was reunited. We celebrated with an afternoon down the hotel pool, which we were allowed access to as it owned the marina.

We had a 6am wake up call to catch slack tide. The sail to Mayaguana- our first stop in the Bahamas- was uneventful, which is just how we like it! The winds were light, the sun was out and the colour of the water was a deep, cobalt blue. We hopefully put out our fishing line, but apart from a nibble as we were leaving T&C, we had no luck whatsoever.

We arrived into Mayaguana in the late afternoon. We had two options: to enter the bay via the east reef past or the west. The western pass was wider and deeper and was generally accepted to be the better option. Unfortunately that would require a total of 2 mile detour as we were coming from the east. The eastern pass was shallower with more coral heads, but we decided to give it a go to save ourselves the time of going all the way around. Nick followed the Garmin charts (which were surprisingly accurate) while I kept watch at the bow for coral heads. We navigated the pass easily and entered the harbour, where we set our anchor in a couple of metres of crystal blue water. We were finally in the Bahamas!

June 10, 2017 0 comment

Offshore

400nm Offshore Passage to Turks and Caicos

Finally heading north!

The day had finally come: we were heading north to Turks and Caicos!

We had been planning to head north for some time. The original plan was to do this passage while Shiner was here at the end of March. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans and we had to make the choice to either beat into 20 knots of wind for 3 days, or stay put and explore the gorgeous BVI’s a bit more. No brainer, really.

Once Shiner left, we could have headed north straight away, but our friend Allison had just flown back from the USA and we wanted to catch up with her before leaving. So we spent an epic weekend in Maho Bay meeting loads of new friends and enjoying all that life on a boat has to offer. After that, we thought we might as well swing by Puerto Rico since we were in the area; we had heard great things, and after eating the most amazing steak from Costco, were dying to get our hands on some American produce to tide us over while we were in the Bahamas. Plus, tacos!

San Juan had won us over completely but now we had a great weather window for the 410 mile passage to Provodenciales, Turks and Caicos and it was time to leave. The weather window was timed perfectly with Allison’s flights back to the States (she had a wedding to go to), so Bo chivalrously agreed to single-hand it up to Provo, allowing Allison to skip the passage entirely.

Our new friends Lauren and Brian came round to say goodbye and once everyone had said their farewells and wished us luck and fair winds, we dropped our lines and headed out the channel. It was a strange feeling; we had no idea when we might be back in this part of the world, as any return to the Eastern Caribbean would require a 3-5 day beat into the prevailing winds, which, knowing us, we would do anything to avoid. So, it was “See you later” but no idea how much later…

An eventful first day

The winds were perfect: 13 knots off the starboard quarter and a little bit of swell that was predicted to die down throughout the night. Bo was storming ahead and so we decided to try and add a bit of speed by flying the code zero. It was really a bit too windy, and the Parasailor would have been a better choice, but the latter also requires a lot more work and we wanted to see what the wind was doing in the longer term before committing to that amount of effort.

The boat was heeling over a little wildly under the code zero, and I could see it snatching with every gust. Nick and I made a few comments about taking it down, but we were too slow to act: suddenly the halyard chaffed through and down it came into the water.

I didn’t have my lifejacket on and Nick is physically stronger, so he dashed forward and started the process of hauling it by hand out of the water. It didn’t take long, and we were relieved to see we only had a small tear in the sail. However, we would not be able to use the spinnaker halyard until after we could re-mouse it in Turks and Caicos; white sails all the way then.

Bo on s/v Salah looking awesome under reefed main and genoa

Thankyou Bo for this awesome pic of Ruby Rose under full sail!

A boring passage… just the way we like it!

After this brief moment of activity, the rest of the passage passed quite uneventfully. We slept, took watch, ate, read and stared out to sea. That’s literally all we did for three whole days. It was very relaxing and pleasant and the weather behaved all the way into Provo, although the final day was slightly lumpier and overcast than the first two.

It was also a fast passage: we averaged 6.3 knots which meant that we arrived into Provo the early hours of Sunday morning rather than mid-morning as originally planned. Bo found us a nice anchorage behind an easy reef entrance to spend the night and we all gratefully went to sleep.

The next morning we motored the 5 miles to the marina where Allison was going to meet us the following day. It was a glorious morning, all sunshine and calm seas and we were greeted by a pod of dolphins playing around our bow! It was a magical moment and a perfect welcome to a new country.

May 19, 2017 3 comments

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Baby!

GUYS. I totally forgot to do a blog last week. Is that a problem?

Okay, so I’m going to break with convention slightly and do one big Puerto Rico blog, even though we made two videos. So here goes.

We arrived into Culebra after a relaxing sail from Christmas Cove, St Thomas. First things, first- we had to check in. Nick called the Customs and Immigration number and was given instructions to come to the airport as soon as we could after anchoring. Okie dokie! We anchored in Ensenada Honda, climbed into the dinghy, aimed for the only dinghy dock we could see, tied up and then tried to figure out where the hell the airport might be. We picked a likely direction (ie, NOT towards the coast and the beach) and trudged away, stopping briefly for directions (we received a blank look and an uncertain wave in the direction we were heading), before seeing a reassuring sign with a little airplane on it. It actually wasn’t that far, but it was a bit of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it situation. The airport was essentially a field with a tiny building on it. We went in, found the Customs office and was checked in by a very thorough and friendly official who made sure we knew exactly what we needed to know (ie, call Customs whenever we move the boat into a different ‘zone’). We were officially checked into the USA (again) and celebrated with tacos and margaritas.

We spent a couple of days chilling in Culebra before deciding to head over to Culebrita. We’d been told that this little island was basically tropical paradise and we couldn’t possibly visit Culebra without staying there at least overnight. We motor-sailed the 5 miles and joined the many, many day boats in the smallish bay. There were a few free mooring buoys, despite the crowds (many boats were all attached to a single buoy or simply anchored right up to the beach) and we tied up, dived on it- no problems there- and got to work cleaning the hull, scraping the propellor free of barnacles, and cleaning the underside of the dinghy. I say ‘we’. I jumped in the water and helped until my arm got a bit sore, then jumped out and left Nick to it.

We actually ended up only sharing the bay with one other boat that night- everyone else left. But we didn’t feel the need to stay longer, so we headed back to the main anchorage for one last night (and tacos!) before the sail to Fajardo the following day.

The forecast was a mild 8-10 knots from the east. We decided that we were feeling too lazy to lift the outboard, let alone the dinghy, so we just left them tethered to the boat. It was going to be a motor anyway.

Well, half an hour and 25 knots later, we were regretting our decision hugely. The dinghy was bucking like crazy behind us as we nervously watched, wondering out loud what our options would be if (or when) the bloody thing overturned. Nick then noticed the fastening bolts becoming loose.

“Terysa! Take the wheel- turn us into the wind. Stall the boat.”

“Wait- what?!”

“I gotta climb into the dinghy and tighten the outboard bolts. It’s about to fall off.”

“Wait- WHAT!?”

“Okay, climbing in now. Wish me luck!”

“Nick, if you fall overboard and drown, I’m going to be scarred for life!”

I almost couldn’t watch as Nick unsteadily made his way from the transom into the bucking dinghy, and then, after tightening the bolts, repeated the process in reverse. Once he was back on board I calmed down a bit, and we continued on our merry way. An hour later the winds had died off completely, and an hour after that we were making our way into Puerto Del Ray, the biggest marina in the Caribbean.

The next few days were extremely exciting for us, and extremely boring for anyone reading or watching this- which is why we didn’t bother filming. We had our first Walmart/Kmart/West Marine/Costco/Other big supermarket experience since leaving the UK two years ago. To say we went overboard would be an understatement. I never thought I’d be the type of person who’d get excited about pretty blue plastic plates, insulated cups, and new pillows for the forecabin, but there you go.

We set off, the boat weighing considerably more than it had a few days previously, and headed to San Juan. It was a beautiful day with perfect sailing conditions: 10 knots on the beam, bright sunshine, almost no swell. We launched the code zero, sat back and chilled out until we arrived into the large harbour leading towards the marina.

The marina was underwhelming and, being Good Friday, there were no staff available to receive us. We had already been assigned a slip the day before, so we just headed there and parked the boat with little difficulty. Nick spotted a security guard- the only employee there that day- who was able to clear us in, provide the wifi code (most important) and the access cards.

Over the next week we had the most wonderful time exploring the Old Town in San Juan. It was reminiscent of any large town in southern Spain and was utterly beautiful, full of history. The Puerto Ricans were also incredibly friendly- everyone had a smile for us, was happy to chat and was extremely helpful. We met new friends through Bo and Allison called Brian and Lauren, who were in the process of moving off their boat and into an apartment in the Old Town, and the six of us had a great time eating, drinking and chatting.

Until next week!

May 12, 2017 0 comment

US Virgin Islands

Can Life On A Boat Get Any Better Than This?

I love living on a boat sometimes.

Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes living on a boat is tough. I don’t get hot showers- in fact, if our water tanks are running low, I don’t get any showers at all- clean clothes is a luxury, we’re so far away from our friends and families, internet is intermittent, and we’re slaves to the weather.

But then we get times like this, where all the amazing things we love about cruising come together into one epic weekend.

It all started on the Friday morning. We got up bright and early to wave goodbye to Shiner and then motored over to St John where we completed the refreshingly simple process of checking into the USA. We had a very American breakfast (cornflake covered chicken on a waffle… who thinks of this stuff!?) and then moved the boat to the nearby Francis Bay.

Early morning motor-sail and phone calls home

We had spent a couple of nights here before and had been sorry to leave. This unexpected return was a huge bonus, not just because it’s a gorgeous bay but because our friends Bo and Allison from Sailing B+A were coming to meet us!

I had assumed it was just going to be the four of us, but it turned out Allison had invited Allende, Wanderlust and Privilege along as well. Most of us had never met except through the world wide web and despite Nick and I being kind of ready for a bit of space after having a guest onboard for 2 weeks, we found ourselves with a very busy social calendar indeed.

Time to try out our lobster snare!

First activity, which took place the second Bo and Allison arrived, was to try to catch some lobster.

Now. Nick had been anticipating this moment for some time. He had even gone to the effort of making a home-made lobster snare and had been itching to try it out. The BVI’s have strict rules about taking marine life from the water without a permit, but now we were in the USVI’s our moment had come. Bo and Allison had been lobstering before around Francis Bay and had a good idea of where to start looking. Sure enough, after about half an hour of diving, swimming and frantically looking for anything that resembled lobster antennae (they’re really hard to spot underwater!) Bo and Nick finally caught one. The snare worked! Success at last.

We were beyond excited and there was a lot of discussion over how to a) kill the lobster (it wasn’t pretty…) and then b) cook the lobster (BBQ’d half, pan-fried half. Delicious!). But our day wasn’t over yet! We had just enough time for an afternoon nap before our evening dinghy raft-up with our new friends.

Why haven’t we had sundowners like this before!?

I had been sceptical about the prospect of a dinghy raft up. Sitting in our dinghy for drinks just did not sound like fun. Well, occasionally I’ve been proved wrong, and this was one of those times. We all tied onto a buoy, someone bought their wireless speaker so we had some tunes, and we had an unimpeded view of a glorious sunset! It was the perfect way to get to know the three boats we had not yet met.

Dinghy raft up!

Privilege is a motorboat owned by Riccardo and Signe, a Portuguese/Latvian couple who were new to living on boats. Although, it turned out that they didn’t have to make a lot of the compromises that the rest of us do; AC, proper bathrooms, dishwasher, microwave oven, washing machine, a cabin the size of our boat, cable TV, fast internet and several large fridges and freezers featured on their boat. As Allison said in regards to their ginormous bathroom, “I feel like I could be glamorous if I also had that bathroom.” They were a very amusing, generous couple and seemed slightly bemused by the compromises the rest of us had to make to live on our boats.

Allende is a Helia, which is the latest 44 foot model of catamaran bought out by Fontaine Pajot. It’s brand new- they took delivery of it last year before crossing the Atlantic in November- and utterly beautiful. It’s like an apartment. Nick and I really like the Helia’s and they’re perfect for chartering or pottering around the Caribbean- which is exactly what its American owners, Kristiann and Graham are doing. They run it as a charter around the BVI’s and I’m sure there guests have the most wonderful time- if you’re interested check them out.

Last but certainly not least is Wanderlust a sub-40 foot sailing boat owned by Quinn and Ben who keep a fantastic blog about their sailing adventures. They’re a young American couple who are absolutely hysterical, especially after a few drinks (and there were many, many drinks…). Ben’s beard is almost other-wordly and he is an awesome musician. Once we had heard him sing with his guitar, we kept on insisting he bought it over with him whenever we met up. Excellent entertainment! Quinn and Ben have had some really bad luck with their boat, including- but not limited to!- a dismasting and, in a separate incident, dragging their mooring buoy in the early hours of the morning in Dominica, and getting smashed up on the rocks which resulted in a hole in their hull. They barely avoided sinking the boat and just managed to limp to Martinique to get hauled out. If I’d had those experiences I probably would have thrown in the towel and moved back to London. They’ve carried on, seemingly unruffled by these near-disasters, which just makes me admire them more.

Okay, so now you know everyone, we can continue! That night, after the dinghy raft-up, Kristiann invited everyone back to Allende for dinner (we were totally hoping for that!). We poked around their boat, suitably impressed at the increased level of luxury they have onboard compared to our boat, and then got stuck into the beer, wine, rum, and whiskey. At some point a Thai curry was served, which was delicious. I’m not sure whether Kristiann and Graham had anticipated the evening taking such a downturn (actually, I don’t think any of us did) but it turned into one of those epic nights that are so much fun at the time, but you almost regret the next day because you’re feeling so rough. It was so worth it though.

The following day we went lobstering again- hangovers and all- and were yet again successful! This time Riccardo and Singe offered to host Lobster Lunch, and Nick volunteered to cook, so we convened on Privilege and, once Allison and I were done poking around their boat, overwhelmed at how luxurious it all was, we sat down for a very civilised meal of lobster and prawn linguine with a rose wine that was so much better than the cheap stuff I can usually afford. Our lives are very strange sometimes.

Next week, dolphins, smoothies, sing-a-longs, oh my! See you then!

April 25, 2017 0 comment

British Virgin Islands Favourites

Is This The Most Beautiful Island In The Caribbean?

I think we’ve found the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean!

Our friend Shiner arrived into the BVI with the intention that we’d spend a week or so cruising the islands before heading north to Grand Turk. His mother originally hails from there which was the main reason Shiner wanted to do this particular passage with us in the first place. Because we can only stay in Turks and Caicos for 6 days before needing to buy a rather expensive cruising license, we couldn’t leave the BVI’s straight away- even though there was a weather window.

Looking at the long term forecast, it looked as though there would be some big swells coming from the north, but once they passed through we’d have just- just– enough time to get to Grand Turk, spend a couple of days exploring before putting Shiner on the plane.

However, the weather Gods had other ideas. As the planned departure date got closer and closer, the forecast continued to deteriorate. A low pressure system was pushing its way further south which meant westerly winds- very unusual for these parts- were now featuring in the forecast for a couple of days. This wasn’t good. It would mean a beat into the wind for at least two days, which… no.

Despite Shiner’s disappointment, he’s an experienced enough sailor to understand that sometimes the weather has other plans, and you just have to abide by them. He was loving pottering around the BVI’s and he made the very sensible decision to change his flights to leave from Tortola instead, and we’d go up to Anegada for a few days and a consolation prize.

And what a consolation prize that turned out to be!

Best sail of the season!

We had spent a couple of nights in Norman Island, home to the infamous Willy T bar and had a great time with friends on Freebird and Salah. That gave us about a 20 mile passage north to Anegada and the sailing conditions were utterly perfect. 15 knots on the quarter, bright sunshine, calm seas- this is what sailing is about! Shiner got a chance to fiddle with the sails to his hearts content (he is such a fantastic sailor and so happy to share his impressive wealth of knowledge- we learned a lot over the two weeks he was here, and we thought we were pretty good at sailing our boat!).

Today’s lesson: splicing!

Anegada is a very flat island- I’ve heard it be compared to the Bahamas in that sense. You can’t see it until you’re only 5 or so miles away, and even then all you can spot is a line of trees. This is very different to the rest of the BVI’s which are mountainous. We motored up the channel, a little dismayed at all the boats we’d be sharing the island with, and tucked ourselves into a very shallow spot behind the catamarans. I wonder what they thought when they saw us- a monohull- motor behind them in such shallow water! We couldn’t help but feel very smug about our lifting keel. We anchored in just 1.2 metres of water (under the hull) and went ashore.

Even the catamarans are in deeper water than us!

Our purple Hello Kitty hire car

We loved this car, really.

Everyone said we should go to the north shore beaches and, since there wasn’t much else to do nearby (I mean that in a good way- it was wonderfully low-key) we decided to fork out the $60 for a hire car. It was a discounted price and we saw why. The car was metallic purple with one white panel. We piled in, Nick turned the engine on, and put it into gear. Nothing happened. Tried again. The car didn’t move. A passer by stopped to help, but could shed no light on the situation. Just as Nick was about to go back into the office, he tried putting it into D2 instead of D3. There we go! We were off!

We rattled our way out of the small town and onto the main road. The list of problems with the car continued to become evident. The electric windows didn’t work (or rather, they worked sometimes but not others. It was pure luck as to whether the window would actually respond to a push of the button, or if it would just stay stubbornly where it was), there was no muffler, the suspension was wrecked, the doors wouldn’t open except from the inside…. There was a purple plastic diamond for a gear shift, a big Hello Kitty motif on the glove box and the interior and exterior was all a bright purple. We loved it.

The incredible north shore beaches

We found the north shore beaches with no trouble- the roads were very well signed and the island is only small. Loblolly bay and Loblolly beach are next to each other, although I can’t remember which was which- and I was pretty confused at the time as well. However, they were equally stunning. White powder sand, an offshore reef breaking up all the surf, and a lagoon of crystal clear turquoise water inside the reef. Apart from one other group, we had the place to ourselves. We went swimming (the coral was unfortunately in pretty bad shape, like many other places in the Caribbean, and the current was strong- but the water was beautiful), took some photos, did a YouTube Live stream from the beach, and then piled back in the car to head to Cow Wreck beach for lunch.

Cow wreck beach, taken from the restaurant. Nice view, right!

Cow Wreck was just as stunning, if not more so than Loblolly. There was a cute little beach bar and restaurant which we’d been told was good, and so we dutifully ordered some food (which took an hour to come out despite only a couple of tables and our order being quite simple… but never mind) and took in the incredible view.

Goodbye Shiner!

Shiner left us a few days later from Soper’s Hole in Tortola. We put him on the 6am ferry to St Thomas and said our goodbyes. Nick and I agreed that he really had been the perfect guest and we made tentative plans (all sailing related plans are tentative!) for him to come back out for one of our longer passages next year. Once he had left, Nick and I headed back to St John to clear into the USA again and ended up having probably the best weekend we’ve ever had sailing- but I’ll leave that for next week.

April 15, 2017 0 comment

British Virgin Islands

What’s it REALLY like to live on a boat?

This week Nick and I decided to do something a bit different for our weekly YouTube video. We thought it might be interesting (emphasis on might) to do a ‘Day in the life’ type of thing to give a good idea of what it’s really like to live on a boat.

Of course, every day is different so we picked what we thought was a pretty typical day. The plan was to do a short sail- well, motor-sail- from our lovely anchorage in Jost Van Dyke across the channel to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, pick up a buoy, go ashore for a spot of exploring before settling down for the evening.

However, the day ended up pretty action-packed- by our lazy standards, anyway!

We raised anchor nice and early to give us time to get ourselves sorted. As we pottered around, packing things up and getting ready to leave, our friend Paulo dinghied over and gently reminded us that we’d promised him our old SUP. Remember when ours kind of exploded in Antigua? Then we got a replacement in St Martin from the lovely people at Red Paddle Co? Well, we still had the old one which Nick had sort of patched up, but having no room for it on our boat we decided to give it to a loving home. Paulo was happy to provide.

Anyway, this deal had been done the previous evening over a beer at the B-Line bar and we had totally forgotten about it. Good thing Paulo reminded us, and he was even good enough to bake us some Colombian hotcake things as a thankyou.

En route to Cane Garden Bay

We had been warned not to enter Cane Garden Bay if there was any swell breaking on the reef. Well, there was a little swell, but it looked minimal and the bay itself looked calm so we went for it. Seeing nowhere to anchor amongst all the mooring balls, we surrendered to the inevitable and picked on up for the night, resigning ourselves to the $30.

From the boat the beach looked absolutely rammed. With some trepidation, we jumped in the dinghy and went ashore with the idea that we’d have a relaxing walk along the beach followed by lunch. However, after fighting our way past the throngs of holidaymakers as we strolled along the sand, we decided to forgo that plan and just eat onboard. Actually, we decided to leave the bay altogether, because we really didn’t want to waste $30 on a buoy in a location we were less that enthusiastic about.

Packed.

However, we were running a little low on diesel and, given there was a fuel station in the bay, we decided on a quick pit stop to fill up. Lines and fenders were put out and we manoeuvred alongside the pontoon. We tied up with the help of the gentleman who works there and stepped onto the dock.

Suddenly, to our horror, the boat started swaying back and forth, snatching at the lines and causing some extremely disconcerting noises. The mooring lines screeched as the boat rolled from side to side like a pendulum. The fenders were completely flattened between the hull and the pontoon and the toerail crunched against the dock with every motion. We grabbed hold of the stanchions- or anything else we could easily reach- and tried to push the boat away from the dock, with very limited success. Nick yelled a reminder at me not to put my feet or legs anywhere near the boat: a relatively common practice while trying to fend off as it’s often easier to push away with a foot rather than a hand. In this case, a limb would have been totally crushed if it slipped between the hull and the pontoon. It was intense.

After a minute or so, the boat steadied slightly. We looked at each other. The attendant was wide eyed, waiting for instruction. We- perhaps foolishly- decided to go ahead with the fuelling. We assumed that the swell that had caused this incident had passed; after all, the anchorage had been perfectly flat, and so perhaps this one set was just an unlucky anomaly.

It wasn’t. Several times over the 5 minutes it took to refuel swell worked its way around the reef and right into the fuel dock. We didn’t bother with a full tank, or with refuelling the jerry cans. We just got the bare minimum and then bailed.

Or at least we tried to. I had cleated the mid-line off in my usual fashion: 3 turns followed by a final locking turn. It never occurred to me to do anything different on this day, but what happened was that the locking turn, well, locked. The line was pulled so tightly from the motion of the boat that, despite several turns ‘under’ the locking turn, the line was almost impossible to undo. I desperately scrapped at it with my nails as the boat bucked and rolled behind me, the screeching from the lines filling the air. Finally, just as I was considering taking a knife to the line, it came loose. We wasted no time in getting the hell outta there.

Laundry day!

That evening was spent, paradoxically, in one of the calmest, most secluded and peaceful bays in the BVI’s. Brewers Bay is only a couple of miles from Cane Garden Bay but a world away in every other sense. With an unmarked reef dividing the bay in two, and several underwater cables running across the seabed, this bay is off limits for many charter boats and, with nothing in the way of facilities, isn’t frequented by liveaboards either. We had two other boats for company that night, but there was ample room for everyone. After a dip in the crystal clear water Nick and I settled down to our first evening together just the two of us for some time. Needless to say, after the stress of that day, it involved a couple of rum and tings (with the ‘fish rum’- we had run out of the nice stuff but we were desperate) followed by dinner and The Walking Dead.

And that, my friends is a (kinda, sorta, not really) normal day in the life of Ruby Rose!

April 7, 2017 2 comments

British Virgin Islands Favourites

The Perfect Hidden Anchorage

I think we found paradise…

After Peter Island, we headed for Norman Island, home of the infamous Willy T bar located in the Bight. Unfortunately the Bight was chockas with mooring buoys- definitely a trend here in the BVI- so we moseyed on over to Bernures Bay a mile or so to the east. And we found paradise.

Very nice indeed!

The bay was kind of deep once again, so we dropped anchor what we thought was a reasonable distance from a 30 foot Dutch boat, admired our gorgeous surroundings, oohed and aahhed at the clear water, and then jumped into our dinghy to go for a snorkel and check out Willy T’s.

We headed for Treasure Point, which is host to a series of caves which has pretty decent snorkeling. Like elsewhere in the Caribbean, there wasn’t a huge amount of fish and the coral wasn’t looking too healthy, but the caves were cool and a little spooky. We then zipped around to Willy T’s expecting all sorts of crazyness, but maybe it was the wrong time of day or something (early afternoon) because not a lot was going on. We met an English/American couple who were on charter, tried to talk them into buying a boat and giving up their corporate lifestyle in London, then headed back to the boat.

As soon as we arrived into the bay, we immediately saw that our boat was looking very close indeed to the Dutch boat next door. The two owners, a couple in their 60s maybe, swam over to us and asked us to re-anchor. We weren’t feeling too keen on this a) because Nick had had a few drinks and b) there wasn’t a lot of room in the shallower parts of the bay and with early evening approaching we really didn’t want to be stuck going around in circles trying to anchor. The husband seemed cool with this, but the wife was NOT happy, so we decided to attempt to tie a line ashore.

We had never done this manoeuvre before and we had only limited success. We tied several of our mooring lines together, attached them to the stern anchor rode and Nick dinghied ashore and tied the line to a strong-looking tree. We then winched ourselves closer to shore until we were a comfortable distance from the Dutch boat. Success.

So far, so good

Midnight brainstorming session

Or so we thought. 12am I was woken by a thud. I stared around the dark cabin wondering if I’d imagined it. Nick snoozed away peacefully. I had just convinced myself that it was simply my imagination when it happened again: we had gone aground. Nick still didn’t wake, and so I went into the cockpit to see what I could see. The solar fairy lights around the back of the bimini were all I could see and it took me several fumbling minutes to work out how to switch the damn things off. That done, I could see the gentle lapping of the water against the shore. It looked awfully close. I stared at it for a few more minutes until my brain finally started to kick into gear and I got a torch. Yep. Awfully, awfully close. Like, a couple of metres away.

I woke up Nick and we tried to hatch a plan. Not easy considering we were both floating in sleepy oblivion a few minutes prior. The wind had shifted and we were now being pushed towards the other side of the bay- only problem was the beach was in the way. Our dilemma was this: we could either let the line go and hope to swing back around, away from the beach. Or we had to come up with a solution that would get us into slightly deeper water. In the end, after considerable head scratching, we moved the line from the stern to the bow and let the stern swing around into deeper water. Nick stayed up for another hour, then we went back to bed.

Life at anchor

The next morning a boat on the other side of the bay left so we took their spot. We took the dinghy to another snorkelling spot, the Indians and the Pelican but it was super choppy and the visibility wasn’t great. So we simply went back to our little corner of paradise.

Life on the anchor

The next few days we did a lot of bumming around, admiring the surroundings and congratulating ourselves for finding such a beautiful and undiscovered anchorage. There was a great hike over to the Bight and Bernurs bay offered some great swimming and snorkelling. The bay was like a millpond, utterly calm. The wind outside however was knocking 25 knots. We couldn’t believe the protection this bay offered from the weather.

After a week living happily at anchor in the most beautiful anchorage we had ever stayed in, we finally ran out of food and the list of jobs started to pile up. Namely, laundry, internet jobs, and boat maintenance, all of which would be much easier to do at the dock- preferably with decent Wifi. So we decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights in Nanny Cay marina before once again returning to a peaceful, quiet anchorage somewhere.

That’s not quite how things turned out.

But I’ll leave that til next week!

March 17, 2017 6 comments

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