The crazy things people do
15 January 2013
Karen
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Louise is HERE! And so, after waiting out the weather and departing Crown Bay on Friday we headed over to Sopers Hole to clear into the BVI's. The trip East was great compared to how messy it was the past few days. We spent the night in Sopers Hole surrounded by what Louise called the 'Disney set village' of storefronts and were completely entertained by the CYOA charter boat next to us who had managed to foul their Roller furling mainsail so it was about one fifth out of the mast...and it wouldn't go in, and wouldn't go out. They decided that pulling it REALLY hard would be a good idea, and so we watched while they managed to yank, not just the sail, but the entire rolled up portion thru the mast section on the lower part of the mast and get it completely jammed. It looked like a bubble popped out for about 6 feet....ummm...that;s not good. Surprisingly, the next call we heard on the radio was them calling back to the charter base...'Hey, CYOA...yeah - this boat is defective...it doesn't sail....noo, we didn't even touch it...it came like this.' Well ok - that wasn't really the conversation...but we were really wishing we stayed around to see how that mess got fixed. On Saturday, up and out to our favorite destination....The Bight...where we proceeded to have the best time.
Louise and I first swam across the bay, then had nice visit with a 4+ foot Barracuda with a lure hanging out the left side of his Jaw. Louise said we should help him...I was content to leave him be. The snorkeling is just a wonderful as ever, with beautiful coral and lots of new small and large fish. Hey, Neighbors...our old friend the Sennet was still here swimming furiously to and fro. I said hello for you!
During the evening 'Boat Docking Adventures' we managed to watch a Bareboat come in just ahead of us...at ramming speed, and approach a mooring, only to back off so quickly that the guy on the fordeck...AND the boat hook ended up in the water...boat not tied to the mooring , of course. We weren't sure if he jumped or fell, until they thru him a life preserver. Hmm, this doesn't look good. Fortunately for them, there was a paid skipper on the boat next to us who went over and after some instructions to the boat to BACK OFF, managed to haul the swimmer, life preserver, and boat hook out of the drink...and get him back on the boat. Then after warning the captain off the rocks that he was about 5 feet from, gave them explicit instructions on how to catch the mooring and secure the vessel. The managed to do it, and every boat in the near vicinity cheered. The next morning we moved to a can on the south side of the bay and then watched that boat get a service call from the chase boat...made us wonder what else might have gone wrong for them in a day?
Sunday dawned so bright and clear and proceeded to be an absolutely glorious day all day long. However after a full day with hardly any clouds, they made up for it at dusk and there was no night sky watching tonight.
Monday, after Barry came by the boat in the morning to see if we wanted to play, Louise and I swam a half mile across the bay to the edge of Treasure Point, and then snorkeled the south coast back to the boat. Turtle and Octopii were our reward as we managed to see two of each, as well as some magnificent coral formations at the end of Treasure Point. It got a little cold however, when the rain began to POUR on us and were trying to get as deep in the water as possible to keep the rain off us. In he meantime, it was a busy day in the harbor. The Police boat came in in the morning and took people off two boats, then away somewhere for questioning. They returned later in the after noon, and spent time on 3 different boats. We have this whole theory about a big brawl that occurred on shore at the Pirate's Bight during the dinner hour...but, well... we really don't know what happened...darn!
Today we headed over to Marina Cay and are sitting near the reef just thinking about snorkeling .... Ahh...what a life!