3rd March

18 19 N
64 37 W

Weather; sunny, wind 10 to 15 Knots E, waves 3 feet

Yet another early start to the day as we were going to be checking in to the BVIs today and then going on to Norman Island. We dropped the mooring ball and Maz took control of the helm with me watching over her shoulder and Gerry talking into her ear on the headsets. We headed across the passage and turned in towards Soper's Hole, we towed the dinghy behind us as we would need it to go ashore to the customs office in Soper's Hole and it was only a very short trip across the passage. As we got close to Soper's Hole I took over the helm and Gerry took up his position on the bow ready to snag a mooring ball. The mooring field was pretty crowded and we had to weave our way through several boats before we spotted an empty mooring ball. Gerry snagged the pennant and tied us on to it, however I wasn't happy with our position in relation to the closest boat to us - if either of us swung heavily we would possibly collide. As I was telling Gerry that I didn't like where we were, a catamaran in front of us dropped their mooring ball and began to make their way out of the basin. I pointed it out to Gerry who dropped the mooring ball we were tied up to and I nudged our boat over to the now vacant mooring ball which had a greater area of swing space around it. We tied up and this time I was quite happy with our position so the engine got turned off and the boat documents and passports put into the going ashore back pack. Gerry took off in the dinghy to customs whilst Maz and I sat on the boat and waited for his return, he wasn't gone too long and came roaring back saying he needed cash as the customs office EFT machine wasn't working - it's a good job I had a few dollars left in my purse which were handed over to pay for our clearing in papers. Once all the official stuff was completed and Gerry was back on board we returned the dinghy to the davits as we were going to be going a good deal further and hopefully we would be able to sail some of it. The mooring ball was dropped and I steered us out of the harbor and into Drake passage, we kept to the port side of the passage and motored up along the coast until we were at an angle that we could cross the passage and head straight for Norman Island. The wind was, of course, on our nose to begin with but as we turned to cross the passage it came around on our beam and we dared to put up the stay sail and Jib for a while, moving along quite nicely but being pushed down lower than we wanted by the current. When we were within spitting distance of Norman Island Harbour we dropped the sails and motored our way into the harbor and picked out a mooring ball to tie up to - all easy and without any problems. We decided to have a late lunch on board the boat and leave going to the Willy T's until the evening. The afternoon was spent doing very little except examining the backs of eyelids and reading. We headed off to the Willy T's at around 5.30pm, thinking we would grab an early dinner and a
couple of drinks but when we arrived there we discovered that dinner wasn't available until 6.30pm so we did what everyone does and got stuck into a few adult beverages, watching the idiots that were jumping off of the top deck of the boat into the water, I could understand the 20 something year old guys who were showing off to their girlfriends but I was quite disgusted with a mother who had 3 daughters aged about 8,6 and 4 who encouraged them to do it. The eldest daughter had no issue with it but the middle one sulked and climbed back over the barrier saying to the mother that she was pushing her and refused to jump ( wise girl!) but the mother then jumped with the 4 year old - to me that was a bit of child abuse and stupidity on the mother's part. Luckily none of them came to any harm so it all ended OK but it could have been so very different. After we had dinner we returned to our boat, had another couple of drinks before dropping into bed. It doesn't sound like a busy day but we were all exhausted - too much bracing, sea air and wind (not to mention alcohol!) tomorrow we plan another longer day so we all needed our beauty sleep.