After a relaxed breakfast we decided to cruise across the way to Jost Van Dyke. JVD is a straight shot from Cane Garden Bay. Surrounding JVD are some beautiful little sandy islands. We motored by Sandy Cay but the north swell made the anchorage look a little tricky. We also wanted a fairly smooth beach landing for our guests and the swell was breaking. Pretty but no stoppy.

We headed up into the bay formed by Little Jost Van Dyke and the rest of the islands to take a look at Sandy Spit. Another nice little sandy island. Conditions were similar and there were a number of charter boats plowing around with swimmers in the water. Maybe not. It was a nice tour of the East end of JVD regardless.

It was still early so we headed down to Great Harbor next to get a nice anchoring spot. Great Harbor JVD is one of the few places in the BVI that isn't matted with mooring balls. Due to the traffic, the bottom is pretty torn up and due to the massive charter business the talent is lacking. It is probably a good thing that most places are flush with mooring balls.

We hooked up in a nice spot close to Foxy's dock. Close is relative here because there is a reef running all around the edge of the harbor. On our way to shore Atsuo San and Yukiko San decided to take the Kayak. It was a lot of fun and they actually beat us to the dock. It was weird to walk around Foxy's in the day time with no one there. The place is legendary in this area for evening mayhem.

Roq came along and had a nice walk on the beach. He made friends with one of the island's famous Coconut Retrievers. Various folks would pick up the dogs coconut and toss it into the surf. He would run in and grab the coconut by the husk and bring it back to someone else to throw. Roq being a senior dog, was having none of this, but he enjoyed watching.

When we got back to the boat we discovered that we had been surrounded. There was a Footloose charter boat right next to us, a Moorings boat a little further away and one more that was too close for comfort on the other side. I asked the Footloose shipper where his anchor was. He indicated a spot that was right next to ours. I asked if he was just staying for the day. He said nope. I asked if he wanted me to move (facetiously) and he said, "no, you'll be alright". I asked if he knew that squalls were going to be coming through all night and that the wind was going to clock 360 and gust over 15 knots? He said, "Huh?" and jumped in the dinghy for Foxy's.

After carefully considering the situation I decided to stay. My primary reason was that I thought that the nuts around us were going to have wraps and collisions with other boats before we came into play. It was going to be hard to haul anchor and relocate at this late hour, especially with our guests aboard. What the heck, I have stayed up all night on anchor watch before...

4AM: I'm relaxing with a cup of coffee in the cockpit. The rain in pounding and the wind is clocking. I'm watching three Beneteaus bouncing off of each other 30 feet to Port. Flash lights everywhere. "Sandra what's happening up there?". "I told you Herb, I can't raise the #$%^ anchor, it's stuck!". At one point I started our engines as things were looking to get messy. Finally one of the boats broke loose, tried to anchor dangerously close to the reef twice and then left the harbor. The other two ended up putting fenders out and rafting together for the night. Scary.