30th January

18 27 N
64 43 W

Weather; sunny, wind 5 knots N, waves 1-2 foot.

RIP. MURIEL CUTHBERT, THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF OUR LIVES, YOU WILL BE MISSED.

The harbor emptied out early, all those charter boats were hurrying to get to the next place to watch the anchoring dance take place! We took a more leisurely approach as we only intended going across the bay today to Little Jost Van Dyke. We could see the bay from where we were anchored so knew it was going to be a very quick trip. By mid-morning we were ready to take off and hauled up the anchor, cleaning the mud off as it came in, and set our course for the trip across the bay. We didn't even bother with sails as it was such a short distance, we motored all the way, arriving well before lunch time. Most of the boats in the bay were leaving as we arrived but the few that remained were all on mooring balls - this has become the norm around the BVIs. We motored around the entire bay to see what was there and to seek out a place where we thought we might be able to anchor. Most of the bay was quite deep - about 40ft, but there were a couple of very small spits which were about 15ft - better for us to anchor in, but really tiny spits. We did a second pass around the bay in case we had missed somewhere but came up with the same result. On our third go around Gerry decided to try anchoring in a spot where it was 19ft and we threw out the anchor and a whole load of chain, backing down on it and backing down and backing down. It was quite rocky bottom with some sand and although we seemed to have the anchor set Gerry wasn't happy with it and after sitting and watching it for a while he decided that we would haul the anchor back up and take a mooring ball to be safe. So up came the well set anchor, covered in mud as it turned out, and we motored to the closest Mooring ball and tied up to it. Gerry was much happier that we wouldn't be going anywhere in a hurry now. Everything got switched off and put away. Gerry then decided that it was time to have a look at the Raycor filter on the engine as he had noticed that there was a small fuel leak and it wasn't obvious where it originated from. The engine room steps got removed, tools were gathered, the filter housing was removed, the hose from the filter housing to the fuel priming pump wouldn't budge so he had to cut it off and replace it, but still nothing obvious as far as the leak was concerned. The housing was taken apart, cleaned and put it back together again with new sealant and a new filter. Let's hope that fixed the problem we will be watching it over the next little while to see if the issue has been resolved. We had a quick, late lunch on board. Then sat in the cockpit doing nothing for a while except watching the comings and goings of other boats in the bay. Mid-afternoon we decided to take the dinghy and do a ride around the bay just to have a look at the shore line. As we made our way from the boat we saw a stingray leap out of the water with its wings flapping and then flop back into the water, it was an awesome sight, closely followed by a turtle poking its head out of the water for a look around and some air. Just these 2 sightings alone made the dinghy ride worthwhile. The shore line of the bay was fairly vacant with just 2 small beach bars/diners neither of which had much appeal to us. There is also a small sandy island (for want of a better word) just off the end of the bay where quite a few people had dinghied across to and were walking on the sand there, there was also a scuba dive boat tied up there so I guess there must be something to dive on in the area too. We dinghied across to have a quick look and decided that we didn't want to go ashore to walk on the beach so we headed back to our boat well in time for the afternoon entertainment. Most of the incoming boats had no trouble picking up a mooring but at 5.30pm we were thoroughly entertained by a Sun sail catamaran that roared in with 7 (that we could see) adults on board. They spotted a mooring ball and with 2 people at the helm and 5 on the bow/trampoline headed towards it, going much too fast I might add. At least 4 of the other crew members were doing the anchor dance, waving their arms all over the place trying to give the helms man directions, unfortunately they weren't all giving the same direction - you could see how confusion might have settled in! The guy with the boat hook on the bow managed to snag the pennant on the mooring ball but the helms man didn't slow down quickly enough or reverse. The mooring ball took off down the side of their boat with the boat hook operator hanging on for grim death until it got to the point where he had to let go of the boat hook. Mooring ball 1 Catamaran 0, Boat hook in water! The helmsman did a 360 degree turn and 2 of the men jumped into the dinghy, cast themselves adrift and went off in search of the boat hook whilst the rest of the crew meandered around the moored boats. By now the entire fleet of boats at anchor or moored had everyone in their cockpit watching the proceedings. The guys managed to pick up the boat hook and headed back to their boat handing off the boat hook to a fellow crew member, then re-secured the dinghy to the back of the boat and climbed back on board. Round 2. Once again, driving far too quickly, they headed for the mooring ball, and missed entirely. Another circuit of the boats saw them coming in for round 3 - another miss! By now we were all beginning to feel a bit sorry for them but had our cameras handy, they had no idea what they were doing. The owner of the boat closest to their chosen mooring ball jumped in his dinghy and went to their aid, picking up the mooring Pennant and waiting for them to go by and take it out of his hands. Again they approached far too quickly and almost ran over their good Samaritan but he managed to get them to throw him a line which he put through the pennant for them and handed back for them to tie onto a cleat - 4th time lucky! I'm sure it was a case of own boat preservation on the good Samaritan's part but he was lucky to not get run over doing his good deed. On behalf of all the boats in Little Jost Van Dyke at 5.30pm on 30th January 2020 our heart-felt thanks goes out to the crew of the Sun sail Catamaran for the entertainment, we wish you the best of luck for future mooring/anchoring.
Having finished watching the entertainment it was time to cook up some dinner - nothing ashore appealed to us for dinner so it was time for another gourmet boat dinner and homemade mojitos. No sunset photos tonight as we are behind the hills once again. No facetime call with Dale and Lorie tonight, which means that they have managed to free the bottom of their boat from the weed keeping it in place in Georgetown and are finally underway and heading towards Turks and Caicos, at least we hope they are considering we haven't heard from them! Fair winds and following seas guys, can't wait for you to finally catch us up even if it is a little while away!