Getting caught up #5
11 February 2017 | Back in Charlotte Amalie
Bill/still windy
I've attached a picture of Money Bay from far above it as we crested the hill during our hike.
It's now Friday and we've been busy. Thursday, we took Puff to shore and hiked up the hill to see Money Bay on the south side of Norman Island. When we were here back in 2005, we'd gone there our first night and dropped out anchor there. Not the smartest move as the seas and winds were against us and it was a miserable night. Now, 12 years later, we are a good bit more knowledgable about where to go and where not to go.
It was a nice hike going zigzag up the side of the hill so it wasn't a hard climb with the occasional view down the the small bay or across Drakes Channel toward Tortola. A nice sunny day and not too hot so it was fun. Looking down into Money Bay, we could see where we had gone years ago and we're glad we got out of it with no problems. Darn lucky!!!
Today, Friday, we make plans on getting out of Benure Bay and head for Soper's Hole on the west end of Tortola and get checked out of BVI. We got our son's schedule for his stay and need to get back to the US Virgin Islands to get prepare for his arrival. We need to lay in more provisions before he comes so we will be stocked and can take off to see the islands once he's here and not wait till then to do it.
We took off for Soper's Hole about 0830 ready to finally sail down wind. Hey, guess what? Mother Nature said it's just not going to happen and there was just about no wind. We had to motor all the way. Only about 8 miles so no big deal but we had looked forward to finally getting some sail time in as all we've been doing is motoring into the winds go get where we were and now that we could go back, there was no wind!! RATS!
We got to Soper's Hole about 1015 and got Puff launched and into Custom's and Immigration. An easy check out procedure but they were a bit mystified that we were checking our five days early and hadn't used any of the National Parks permit while there. We know we will be returning once our son arrives.
Soper's Hole is a Tracy Nightmare. All the boats are on moorings and quite close to each other. Tracy's idea of a nice place to anchor is with a good 100 feet between each of the boats. Yesterday as we sat at anchor in Benure Bay, a small 35 foot boat came in and after dropping their anchor pretty much dropped back and ended up very close to being on top of our anchor. As we pulled up our anchor this morning, the people on the other boat refused to pull forward on their anchor so we ended up coming about 8 feet fro them before we could brake our anchor free. What a bunch of pig headed idiots.
Any way, once we checked out of Soper's Hole, we too off for Maho Bay again on the north shore of St' John where we had been severa weeks ago during our circumnavigation of the island. We'll send tonight here and be in Charolotte Amalie in the morning so we can start provisioning(and repairing).