01/29/2007, USVI
Okay, imagine this. It's seven a.m. The sun is still low but rising over the mountains. The air is hot, humid, hazy already. The beaches are empty, pristine. There is not a scrap of wind. The palm trees, usually swaying gracefully in the breeze, are still. The water is calm, milky. You are kayaking over into the next bay - an early morning paddle. There is no one about, only pelicans who dive-bomb the waters around your boat, searching for breakfast. A few feet away, a sea turtle surfaces and glides towards you, checking you out. He comes to within two feet of your kayak, nods as if to acknowledge your presence, then dives deep. This was my second, and best, morning in Maho Bay on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
St. John is a beautiful and quiet island as it is over 50% US National Park, thanks to land and monetary donations from the Rockefellers. Wildlife abounds. We moored off yet another perfect beach at Maho Bay, transient "home" to many cruisers like ourselves, and also the permanent home to an "eco-resort" - small tent cottages set in the hills, each one distant to the next, with a communal dining room.
Another anchorage, at Leinster Bay, provided snorkelling which featured sightings of sea turtles, rays and lobster. And we would often see magnificent schools of blue runners in a frenzy of feeding around the anchorage, making the waters look virtually alive!
Hiking trails criss-cross the island, providing the opportunity to self-tour the inland areas of the island and travel from scenic lookout to historical site. David has been taking advantage of the trails, running almost every morning, while I stay back at the boat, cooking big breakfasts and getting chubby!
At sunset, the lights of St. Thomas, much more urban, sparkle in the distance and the night sky is filled with stars. This is tranquility.
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01/22/2007, Bristish Virgin Islands
Yesterday proved to be a more mellow day than the last two... the weather was the same - perfect as usual - but the mood was quieter... we had just said good-bye to two of our favourite cruising families.
A couple of days ago, we were surprised by the appearance of Wind Dancer IV and the Mackenzie family in our anchorage at West End in Tortola. They keep their sensational 44-foot sailing catamaran in charter in the BVI and happened to be in the BVI themselves for a couple of weeks. We spent the next couple of days together at Jost van Dyke and Nanny Cay. Litttle did we know it was to become an "all-inclusive" for us!! The kids loved see their friends, Connor and Jenny, and played together endlessly - tubing behind John's dinghy, hiking out to the "whirlpool" at Jost, snorkelling, high-diving off the catamaran, trampolining, swimming and shelling at Nanny Cay... And because the Mackenzies were trying to use up food stores on the boat before departing for Toronto, almost all meals were had on board Wind Dancer! It really made for a spectacular few days! Thank you, John and Ziggy, Connor and Jenny!
In Nanny Cay, we were also joined by Mette and Peter Korver and their three lovely kids, a Dutch family who sailed over from Holland and that we had cruised with off and on for the last couple of weeks (and I thought we had come a long way!). The final evening at Peg Legs proved to be fabulous with the three families together, the kids playing together one last time and the adults sharing crazy sailling tales, getting "ship"-faced, etc. So much reverie!
Then it was Round 2 at Jost - we felt we needed to see more of the island - and on the way, we made a long afternoon stop at Sandy Cay where we all surfed the rollers marching onto the perfect white sand beach and hiked the trail around the perimeter of this unique island, seeing unusual flora and fauna along the way. Definitely one of our favourite stops in the area!
Today, we tripped off to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, made famous by the Jimmy Buffet song, Manana.:
I hear it gets better
That's what they say
As soon as we sail on
To Cane Garden Bay
Well...
On approach, what would have been a spectacular Virgin Island beach lined with palms (as I'm sure it was when J.B. wrote the song decades ago) is now too commercial to be beautiful. Rows of lounge chairs line the beach in front of numerous beachside bars and open-air restaurants, catering to the cruise-ship crowds being shipped in from Road Town, Tortola. So we had our "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and moved on... Tomorrow, we're off to St. John and St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands... in search of the perfect, juicy lime!
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01/17/2007, Soper's Hole, BVI
We recently had two of the most perfect sails to and from Anagada in the Virgins - 15 to 20 knots of steady wind on the beam, the boat making 7 to 8 knots! And on entering the channel into Anagada, Sabrina (5) landed a nice fish while reeling in the line! We didn't believe her when she called, "Fish On!" but realized she was telling the truth when we saw the bend in the rod! So we hauled it in.... Nice job, Sabrina!
Anagada is a beautiful "end of the earth" type outpost about 15 miles north of Virgin Gorda, surrounded by the third largest reef in the world. The north coast is essentially one continuous 11 mile stretch of sensational pink sand beach. We took advantage of the lovely beach for a day, David snorkelling the reef just offshore, where he had an encounter with an octopus... I guess the octopus felt threatened and decided to squirt the "intruder" with ink, which agile David easily dodged... fun on the reef!
Our day at the beach was followed by a spectacular lobster dinner on the beach out front of the Anagada Reef Hotel.... Mmmmm.
From Anagada, we sailed to Cooper Island where we stayed for three days as the swimming and snorkelling were sensational. The girls were excited by close encounters with sea turtles, Caroline even swimming down to touch one!
At Norman Island, we moored WildChild in a small, quiet, peaceful and protected cove where we swam and snorkelled right from the boat. The girls had fun also playing with other "boat kids" on the beach, swimming and playing tag. We also dinghyed to the nearby Caves, made famous by the pirates of long ago who hid millions of dollars worth of treasure there. Unfortunately, we didn't find any treasure during our snorkelling adventures there! And one evening, David decided to brush up on his "home dentistry" skills and pulled out two of Sabrina's loose front teeth! She's truly my hero... she didn't even flinch for the first one and then immediately agreed to let David have a go at the second...
As I write this, I'm sitting in a waterfront bar in Soper's Hole, drinking, eating, typing... the temperature is a balmy 80 degrees and it was sunny all day... can't say I miss the frozen north!
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01/10/2007, British Virgin Islands
From Anguilla, we had a rollicking downwind sail to the British Virgin Islands, with our speed topping out at 9 knots! En route, David had a mammoth fish on the line (thanks, Tin Man, for the rod!). After a long struggle, the big one got away by slipping the hook. Dinner at a restaurant again...
We spent a couple of days moored off the Bitter End Yacht Club (kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean meets the RCYC) where we anchored in a quiet cove and did a little hiking, swimming, kayaking, etc. Snorkelling out by the barrier reef yielded sightings of the some the largest parrot fish I've ever seen. In addition, David spotted a spotted eagle ray... this is truly a diver's paradise!
We sailed today to THE DOGS, a little cluster of islands in Gorda Sound. We were led by a dolphin who played in our bow wave amusing the kids. We were truly amazed by the incredible visibility... in 80 feet of clear blue water, we could see the sea bottom, dotted with starfish! We then swam, snorkelled and kayaked in the calm, clear water off the Dogs - spectacular reef formations and fish! And much to our amazement, our dolphin appeared once we were in the open again to accompany us on our return journey! It doesn't get much better than this!
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