Beware of hitch hikers. This one stayed with us for 12 hours until he eventually decided that we were not going to leave.

After completing the Caribbean 1500, we had a number of boat repairs to complete which took around two weeks. Under normal circumstances, these tasks would have taken just a few days. However, in Nanny Cay Marina, which is very well-sheltered from the strong trade winds with temperature above 90 degrees fahrenheit and high humidity, doing anything took a long time. In fact doing nothing was exhausting.

We finally sailed out of the marina and into the refreshing easterly trade winds and in no time were passing Pelican Island and the rocks known as The Indians before turning into The Byte at Norman Island to pick up a mooring. We soon had the dinghy launched in order to go exploring but found we were unable to start the outboard motor. It didn't stop us from getting across the anchorage and having a very nice evening being invited to a barbecue dinner on a co-Caribbean 1500 rally boat where we shared stories of the trip down. The next day, we were able to arrange to have the outboard engine fixed over in Nanny Cay Marina which only took a few hours.

After departing Nanny Cay Marina a second time, we decided to head over to Trellis Bay, which is located at the end of the runway of Beef Island International Airport. It was an interesting anchorage as you can only enter parts of the Bay after calling up and getting permission from the airport control tower. Also, Trellis Bay features monthly "Full Moon" parties complete with flaming metal sculpture fireballs on water, stilt walkers, food and entertainment. Although we missed this month's party, we'll definitely attend a future one (although we hear that mooring/anchoring can be very crazy during that time in Trellis Bay).

Then next day we headed to Prickly Pear Island where we had arranged to meet 12 other rally boats who were planning a Thanksgiving Day meal on the beach. It was no more than a few hours sail before we were dropping anchor on the south side of Prickly Pear Island. After some discussions between all the rally boats, it was decided what dish each boat would bring to the beach for following day's Thanksgiving meal. On Thanksgiving Day, everyone took to their dinghies at the allotted time with their dish in hand to the beach where all the food was set up. It looked just like any other Thanks giving Day meal with turkey, stuffing, all the usual vegetables, pumpkin pies, banana bread, etc. It was only the location of a sandy Caribbean beach shaded by palm trees that seemed a little strange. It was great to catch up with the other ralliers and to find out what they had all been doing since arriving in the BVI as well as enjoying a really great meal. Most of the other boats headed off in different directions the next day, but we decided to stay put and explore the area by dinghy and hike around some of the local villages. It was interesting hearing traditional Christmas carols being sung to reggae music.

We then decided to set sail to Anegada, the most northerly island in the BVI. Finding our way into the island anchorage was not easy as it is surrounded by reefs with just a narrow entrance channel. What made it more concerning was that our electronic charts did not agree with the physical buoys. In fact, our electronic charts showed us transiting over rocks as we slowly followed the channel markers into the harbor. It certainly helped that the water was so clear that we could easily see the bottom which enabled us to follow the markers with more confidence, ignoring the charts.

Once in the harbor we took the dinghy ashore to explore the island. We rented a motor bike and headed over to the north side of the island to snorkel around the reefs. On the way back we stopped at an Iguana breeding centre that is trying to restore their dwindling population. We then watched the hundreds of pink flamingos on the salt ponds and stopped at a beach bar for a Pain Killer before returning to the boat.

The next day we continued anticlockwise around the islands and headed-off to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola which was our longest sail since arriving in the BVI. With a strong following wind we found ourselves at our destination in no time and entered the small bay where we picked up a mooring buoy for the night. The bay was very picturesque with a long sandy beach shaded by palm trees with brightly colored houses perched on the hill side.

We realized that our BVI 30-day immigration stamps in our passports were about to expire and that we would need to head to Road Town, the capital, to get an immigration extension. We continued on our way, briefly stopping at Jost Van Dyke and Norman Island before entering Road Town.

Road Town was very different from any of our other stops in the BVI as this was a commercial port with large cruise ships. After passing the cruise ships we pulled into the Village Cay Marina which was located almost in the centre of town giving us no more than a 20 minute walk to the immigration office. After a one hour wait, completion of a few more forms and another $20 we had our immigration stamps extended. We then spent the rest of the day exploring Road Town before heading back to the boat for the night.

Our time in the BVI, at least for 2009, was rapidly coming to an end although we just had time to head back to Norman Island and snorkel the underwater caves and hike the fantastic trails around the island. From the trails we had great views of the US Virgin Islands of St. Johns and St. Thomas's in the west and Tortola and several of the smaller British Virgin Islands in the north. We then headed back to Nanny Cay Marina where we are leaving Shazam and will be heading on 15 Dec to the airport to fly to England for the Christmas Holidays.