April 1, 2014

9:30 am we dropped the buoy and sailed out the bight, headed NE up the Sir Francis Drake channel for North Gorda Sound. Sails up, engines off, just the sound of the rigging creaking and the water rushing down the sides. Brilliant sunshine sparkling the sea, with a few puffy fair weather cumulus clouds. 22 nautical miles up the channel with two tacks to make the cut between the north end of Tortola and the southwest side of Virgin Gorda. There were something like a hundred other boats in view all day, sailing their hearts out in all directions. Our Catana catamaran was showing most of them her heels as we weaved through the fleet. We did get passed by two beautiful sailboats that were having an impromptu race going our same direction; one was a blue-hulled 75' sloop, the other a classic design schooner of well over 100', both fully crewed and heeled well over, tearing up the channel.

In early afternoon we turned the corner around the top of Virgin Gorda and entered the channel into North Gorda Sound. There are several marinas within the sound, and we needed fuel to head upwind across the Anegada Passage to St. Martin tomorrow. We tied up to the fuel dock at Leverick Bay Marina, took on fuel and water, paid for an overnight mooring, and moved off to the ball.