The wind had not abated much overnight and it was time to leave the lagoon, along with a lot of other visiting craft. It was over a few drinks that Lowell Wheatley, a local Anegadan visionary and developer, discussed how to get more of the charter boats in the early 1980's to visit Anegada. The charter boat operators had put Anegada off limits. From this discussion, a channel was plotted on the chart and with the help of Simon Scott, the author of Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands, the channel was surveyed and the approach plotted. It was sometime later that the British Virgin Islands government placed permanent markers and GPS navigation became mainstream. What a wonderful achievement for the island's future prosperity. With care, we followed all the channel markers until we came to open waters. With the Main and Genoa set, Trilogy skipped along on a beam reach, with up to 9 knots of speed under her wings. There was a significant current to offset, but the boat was beautifully balanced and she sailed with ease. The boat speed was too high for trawling, so no fishing today.
There had been an intention to head for Jost Van Dyke Island, but with a strong southerly wind persisting, we changed course late in the piece and headed for Cane Garden Bay, on the west coast of Tortola. This is another quintessential Caribbean beach - reggae, palm trees, long white beach and turquoise blue waters. Hence it is a popular spot to visit and to our dismay, the bay was full of charter boats. The beach can be filled to overflowing with cruise ship visitors, who get trucked across the island from the main port, to spend a day at the beach. We were fortunate in that sense, because there were only yachties visiting this small beach resort village.
The skipper needed to visit Road Town, the main port, in order to extend our visitors visa beyond the 9 days we had been allocated. When he got there, he was told to return the next morning as the 'immigration extension section' had closed at 11:30 in the morning. Meanwhile Kat and Bridie found Wifi and Sue and Ros checked out the little beach shops. Sue needed some cash and after finding the ATM had the terrifying experience of having the machine swallow her card towards the end of the transaction! We made inquiries in the adjacent hotel who immediately contacted the bank, who seemed to doubt that we were telling the truth and then said that the security firm who manages the ATM would have to be called in the morning!
With Peter and Garth back from Road Town, we all went to Quitos Gazebo for Happy Hour and commiserated with each other about our woes. Quito was playing at the time and so with the great live music, our spirits were lifted. Quito performs solo and with his band The Edge, several nights a week and is a favourite with locals and visitors. We dined on Caribbean fare for dinner, with the beat of reggae going well into the night. Another favourite and legendary spot further along the beach is called Tony's Welcome Bar. Jimmy Buffett immortalised this joint with his 1978 song Mañana....cheeseburger paradise! Sure enough, on top of the menu was cheeseburgers.
Next morning, there was a fair bit of push to get ashore early, to sort out the bureaucracy...or so we hoped. Sue and Peter tackled the bank issue, while the skipper had his own battle over the other side of the island. The Myett hotel staff continued to be very helpful but the bottom line around lunchtime was that the security men refused to believe that the card was in the machine, even though they had opened up the back. On close questioning, they talked about 'a black box' that they refused to open. The card was immediately cancelled by Peter. Garth also had to do battle of a similar kind. He was required to meet with the Chief of Immigration. Eventually, after a long problem solving discussion, a favourable outcome was granted to the skipper.
Meanwhile, Kat, Bridie and Ros relaxed on board and waited until some news was received. We met up at Myett's Restaurant back on shore for lunch and the stories were shared. Travel throws up these unexpected challenges and all you can do is try to minimise the fall out and keep safe. We ended up counting our blessings, but we were ready to move on! By mid afternoon we headed out of Cane Garden Bay for Brewster's Bay, a short distance north, which promised to be quieter with some good snorkelling. Sue, Peter and Garth all swam some distance ashore around the reef, but the water was murky and the coral lacked interest. With the sun setting behind the cloud bank, we gathered in the cockpit to catch the cooling breeze, eat Chilli Con Carne and imbibe the last of the wine on board.....oh dear!