Thursday was another trip into Road Town on Pannikin. Jeremy & Steven (from Amaris) have decided to do their Open Water Diver PADI course on Jost Van Dyke. We picked up a course manual at “We Be Divin” scuba shop near Village Cay Marina, visited Digicel again & also a couple of groceries. Later that night a couple of drinks on Pannikin.
Friday our plan was to head to Cane Garden Bay on western Tortola for the night. Just was we were pulling up anchor, the mizzen sail on Joy came tumbling down to the deck. The halyard had snapped – so up the mast Jeremy went. Not a nice day for it either... lots of strong wind gusts & driving rain every 5 minutes or so. The last couple of days had been fairly wet. Finally a new halyard was run & the mizzen sail was back up where it should be. Amaris also had drama – dragging anchor & getting caught up on a nearby mooring ball – all was sorted & well in the end. Our sail to Cane Garden Bay was a wet & cold one, but still enjoyable. The BVI Spring Regatta is on at the moment, so there is always plenty of yachts racing each day. They were out in full on Friday. When we reached the anchorage it was really rolly due to the northerly swell so we ended up anchoring in Little Harbour (Garner Bay) on Jost Van Dyke. Steven went north to Trellis Bay to collect Sean from the airport – will see them again soon. A quiet night in a lovely little bay.
Saturday Steve & I had a great walk around Little Harbour. Up the very steep hill to the top of the island where the views were great. We then walked around to the western side of the bay & had a look at “Sidney’s Peace & Love Restaurant” where we may end up later on! We then upped anchor & headed back to Cane Garden Bay where there were some great waves on the point yesterday. Steve went for a surf & Ange wandered around the street (only one!) for an hour. We headed back to Jeremy & Susie who were now anchored around at Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke ready for the diving course on Sunday. Lots & lots of boats here & we had no luck anchoring. Our anchor dragged every time, so we ended up going back to Little Harbour. No problem anchoring here. Just before sundown Amaris moored in front of us & we popped across to Sidney’s for Happy Hour. This was great – a self service bar! Just get what you want & write it down in the book on the bar! Certain drinks were 2 for 1 in Happy Hour, so we had a beer & Steven and Sean had Painkillers. It was a nice hour – there were plenty of cruisers there. Out host, Strawberry, was a lovely lady too. We went back to Amaris for a glass of champagne & a quick chat before dinner & bed.
Today we tried our luck again at anchoring in Great Harbour. We managed to find a great spot close to the beach & had no problem anchoring this time. We had a quick walk around town & called in to say Hi to Jeremy & Steven doing their course at Jost Van Dyke scuba. We had another good look at Foxy’s Bar & got to speak to the famous man himself! He knew so much about Australia (his wife is Aussie) & it was great to talk to him. It’s a nice spot here – plenty of cruisers running around in their dinghy’s to the shore, swimming & generally having a good time. We’ll wait to see how loud Foxy’s gets tonight!

Photo - looking down on Little Harbour.