Some people know how to anchor and some don't.
09 April 2017 | Benure Bay, Norman Island, BVI
Bill/cloudy with rain in the forecast
It's now Sunday night and we've had some fun since we've been here in Benure Bay, well at least until tonight but I'll get to that later.
We pulled in about 1600 on Friday and dropped the anchor in about 40 feet of water as all the other boats seemed intent on getting as close to shore as they could. We chose to be more in the center of the bay. Some even tied their sterns to the shore. Easy way to get critters on board. That line to shore make a great gang plank welcoming all kinds of thing that lurk there. I'll pass and stay a nice distance out plus there are reefs along the shore I'd prefer to miss.
Saturday morning we cleaned up inside and I checked and refilled all the house batteries. I try and do it at least once a month and it was time. All the cells were darn close to being full so no problems there. In the late morning, we took Puff and a bucket of water and cleaned all the salt off the teak we have at the port side bulwarks. Our recent sailing has made most of the boat quite salt encrusted. We let it dry and had a nice lunch(tacos!!) and then mixed up a batch of Perfection Plus, a two part varnish we started using in Trinidad. It was past time for another coat. I held the pot while Tracy brushed it on as we stood in Puff. The six ounces I made was just right for where we were applying it. We got lucky and the rain that was forecast for last night never happened so it had plenty of time to dry. We were done with that project and decided to try a new place for snorkeling. Just outside of Benure Bay and just to the east is a spot on our charts that was supposed to be great. Off we went and it's some of the best coral and sea life we've seen in literally years. With the current coming down the channel we were in, Tracy went first while I stayed in Puff. When she was done, we swapped places and I go to go. It was good enough that we went back again this afternoon. Once I get the pictures I took into my computer, I can post them. Currently, I can only post using my iPad.
I forgot to tell you about getting visited by the BVI Customs and Immigration people. As I wrote last week about the sailing regatta here, well the Customs and Immigration people thought that would be a good time to go through the anchorages and make sure no one had snuck over for the US Virgins to see the regatta. They visited four boats in Benure with us being the last boat. They wanted to see our passports and documentation that we were checked in. After looking at our paperwork, the leader of the group looked at me and says "I'm sorry but we have to arrest you!!!". I'm sure my answer shocked him as I casually looked at him and said "OK, what do we do now?" We've learned in our visits to 33 countries over 45,000 miles to just agree with just about every official you meet. If there is a problem, it can be straightened out later. His comment "You don't seem to upset about this?" My response was what I already wrote here. "OK where do we go now". He showed me the error I'd made on our paperwork. I put the year as 2016 instead of 2017. He changed it on the form and slowly motored off. I guess he was expecting a bigger response from us.
Anyway, now to today(Sunday). As I wrote earlier in the post, we did some afternoon snorkeling and returned to Zephyr as several other boats entered the anchorage. One charter came in armed with their boating hook. They were looking for a mooring ball and seemed confused that there we none and didn't look to thrilled that they would have to anchor. Another catamaran(45 feet)named White Pearl came in and anchored a good way from our boat. He dropped his anchor and then powered back to set it. I mean, he REALLY powered back, keeping his boat in reverse for a good ten minutes driving his anchor well into the sandy bottom. Once he was done, I yelled over to his boat to see who brought it in and did the anchoring. One man said that he did. I proceeded to congratulate him on doing a great job. We haven't seen anyone anchor like that since Musket Bay in Fiji. He thought I was being sarcastic but I assured him I was serious. It's been five years out here since I've seen some one do it right. Heck, even I don't do it that well. He seemed quite happy with my comment and said it was his first time!! I again told him he did a great job. Now here is where the story goes a bit crazy. About 1815, in comes a nice 56 foot charter from one of the local companies. Now we already have 15 boats in the anchorage and there is still room for plenty more. Most choose to be on the east side of the bay. This group comes in and drops their anchor about 40 feet from the starboard side of our boat and drifts back even closer. If he drifted back more, he would run into the reef just off his stern. By the time he was settled in, he was about 35 feet from us. Now Benure Bay is a great place to anchor but the winds in here are unusual in that they shift as they move around the anchorage. Some boat will face east while others will go south. There is no consistency to what will happen. Tracy was getting upset as I casually went on deck and put some of our fenders over the starboard side to protect us should he hit us. The "captain" just sort of laughed at that. A second man stood at the bow and was working with the windlass and the anchor. They just kept getting closer, so I took out my iPad and took pictures of them just for our records should something happen. Tracy started yelling at them that they were too close(very unlike her). She normally lets me do the yelling. The "captains" comment was "it's just fine, be cool". Our response was "Boating etiquette states that if you are anchoring to close to another boat and that boat asked you to move, YOU MOVE! They talked amongst themselves and with much grumbling asked me where they should go. My answer was short "Any where but where you are". They started motoring forward while not pulling up their anchor. Once they finally started pulling it up, they were so far forward of it that it pulled their bow around so they were within 10 feet of the boat (White Pearl) I'd congratulated on their anchoring skills. Those people grabbed their cameras and also started taking pictures of what was happening. Flashes were going off all over the anchorage! In the end, once they got their anchor up, instead of simply moving to another spot in the bay, they just left! No clue where they were going but it wasn't to either of the two closest places to anchor on Norman Island. It looked like they were headed back to Sopers Hole where they picked up their boat. Being Sunday, it's normally the start day of most of the charters here in the islands. As they left, they vanished into the darkness as the Sun had long since set. I yelled back over to White Pearl, "see, not everyone does it right". He waved and took a bow. Some people can do it and some can't and mess it up for others in an anchorage.
Tomorrow has a 70% chance of rain and there are small craft advisories out so I expect we will be here for another day. No problem there.