Amulet underway

We departed Nettle Bay on St. Martins at 0530, hoping for a broad reach in the trades to Virgin Gorda in the BVI's. Didn't happen. Powered the whole way across, arriving in Gorda Sound at 2000, after dark, on an ILS approach. Dropped the hook off of Bitter End Yacht Club, and the following morning, took a very windy dinghy ride to check in with customs at Gunner Harbor. Following that, we went to Bitter End Yacht Club and took the scene in, then back to the boat, we weighed anchor and got a buoy in front of Spanish Town, and went in to get a SIM card for the cell phone. That done, we headed down to the Baths, where we grabbed a buoy, and then proceeded to listen to the wind blow all night long. Two boats were with us, one anchored, one on a buoy. The wind was out of the west, which is unusual, so we were on a lee shore. One of the other boats chafed through their mooring line and ended up scraping the rocks in the middle of the night-a rude awakening. The second boat took off in the middle of the night for the relative security of Road Town, some 10 miles distant. We were the only ones to make it through the night, which we thought would guarantee a front row seat for the natural rock formations, called the Baths-one of the highlights of a BVI visit. Unfortunately, it was still blowing the next morning. Boats came and went, with each trying to launch a dinghy, but unable to reach shore as the waved were too big. We thought we could do better around noon and tried to go ashore, but alas, the waves were indeed too big. Fortunately, we had previously visited The Baths on our last swing through here 8 years ago, but it was not to be this time.

We decided to bag it and headed down the west side of Tortola for Little Harbor, home of Sydney's Peace and Love Bar, and our staging area for our favorite island, Sandy Cay. On Tuesday, February 21st, at 1700, we took a buoy in Little Harbor and enjoyed a quiet evening. Wednesday the 22nd, we spent a blissful day on Sandy Cay which is a nature preserve donated again by the Rockefeller family, with a palm tree or two, and no commercial enterprises. It's right out of a Corona commercial. Wednesday night we had dinner at Foxy's in Great Harbor, where we were anchored, and Thursday the 23rd, it was back to Sandy Cay (don't mess with a good thing), where we endured several rain squalls, that unfortunately brought the no see em's out of the sand, and we were eaten alive, with each of us having 50-100 bites all over our legs-a stark contrast to the bliss of the previous day.

Thursday night it was back to Little Harbor, then Friday, we went to Soper's Hole where we got the boat cleaned up and provisioned in preparation for the arrival on Sunday of our San Francisco friends, Bill Johnston and Bobbie Fisch.

Picture is of Melinda, returning from a snorkel.....