Sunday Day 9

We woke up to a beautiful day.  For the first time this trip, we were all up and ready to get moving by 8am.  We thought maybe we’d get one last snorkel in, so we got ready, had something to eat and headed over to the Indian’s.  After hanging for half an hour or so and watching the birds, we decided it would be more fun to spend the time sailing back to the base.  We figured we wouldn’t get back by noon as we wanted to if we did the snorkel and sailed.

So, we dropped the mooring, raised the sails and began sailing back to Road Town.  Wind was decent and we moved along between 6-8 knots.  The closer we got to road town, the more the wind shifted, but we made decent time considering wind was coming out of the NNE.  We were at the entrance to the harbor around 11:45 and began dropping the sails and hailed Sunsail on the VHF.

As we pulled up to C dock, one of the TUI guys was going to meet us and take the boat in.  I told him I was happy and able to dock it.  He was happy to let me and told us to head all the way in to C dock.  We first had to lower the dinghy, so my crew took care of that as I tried to keep us steady.  Once lowered I headed all the way down to the inside end of the dock, spun the Cat around and started to back in.  We were right up against the inside edge of the dock next to a mono hull.  First attempt I was getting blown a bit too close to a piling in the water, so I pulled forward, repositioned and backed in without issue on attempt #2.  Got some compliments once done, thanked the guys and we began our cleanup and final packing.

I never know how it happens, but we always bring stuff down that will get used and not brought back home, yet we always end up with the weight of the bags being very similar.  No different this trip as I had to shift things around since we were at 50lbs in one bag and I only trust my sale to be accurate within two pounds.  We got that squared away and then I took care of the debrief, giving her about 6 items that needed to be addressed with the biggest being the generator – it was far louder than it should be and vibrated far too much – the whole boat vibrated – it was annoying, but bearable.  I’ve made a mental note to check this for the future as I would have been happy to have them put us on a different boat from the start.  Once done, we headed to the restaurant by the pool for our final bushwhackers and lunch before heading to the airport.

2:30pm came far faster than I thought it would and we were off to the airport for our 4pm flight.  Flight was on time and I got some great pictures.  There were two couples on the plan with us that had 6pm flights out of San Juan!  I think they probably made it as long as they were expedited since our group made it into the Jet Blue terminal by 5:45.  Not bad, but I wouldn’t count on being able to do that had customs been busier – it was dead quiet.

Grabbed a bit in the terminal and now we’re on the plane heading home.  Starting to think about our next trip already.  

One of the most unique Cape Air planes I've ever seen.  In fact, only unique one I've seen!

Until next time, hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did!

Saturday Day 8

Surprisingly, Stephanie and I were ready to go around 8am.  Rest of our crew, not so much.  So I told Stephanie to take the helm, put the boat in gear to hold us with the stern line and removed all the lines (stern last) and jumped aboard having Steph put us into reverse at that time.  I had her back us out (first time) and she did fine with a little coaching.

We knew we wanted to try to get 2 dives in today.  So our first thought was Cow’s mouth.  We had a great dive with Evan (sail2wind) and Greg here our last trip.  Unfortunately there was a decent north swell so it didn’t look good – very rough in fact!  So we figured we’d try the chimney thinking it might be a bit more protected.  Under other circumstances, it would have been, but the direction the swells we’re from were hitting it just right.  So, we bailed on that as well.  I decided the safest bet would be to just head towards Peter.  There were sites there we could dive or we could simply head to the Indian’s and Rainbow Canyon’s.  After reviewing the guide book, we opted for the latter and got to the Indian’s around 1pm.  We did our dive while the rest of our crew snorkeled.  After the dive we moved and did the same at Rainbow Canyon.  Both dives we’re great.  We saw Spotted drums and High Hats on both of them – this just seemed to be a trip we’re we saw them all the time.  Very unusual!  Visibility at Rainbow Canyon’s weren’t great, but once in, I was looking down and looked up and was startled by a large creature.  A spotted eagle ray was swimming by 5 feet right in front of my.  I aimed the camera at him and saw it was off, so I powered it up, hit record and still managed to get a great shot of it swimming by!

After the dives, we headed to the moorings outside the Bight by the Caves.  I told the crew about the caves and that we could dinghy over to see them as they’ve never seen them.  So once settled we got our gear ready and we’re headed over.  As we left the boat, I decided I wouldn’t take the camera and told Steph that we’d probably see something cool now.  We’ll, I was right!  I like to think if I had the camera, that we wouldn’t have seen it, but I’m not leaving it behind again!!  Once there we heard a group in the water mention an octopus.  So we swam that way and looked for a bit until I finally saw it.  I dove down to get a closer look and he moved.  For the next 15-20 minutes, we swam about watching him move all around and even swim which was very cool.  It’s just too bad we got no pictures or video of it – it was certainly one of the snorkel highlights this trip!

Rainbow Canyon dive site

After our snorkel, we headed back to the boat where we just relaxed, had some drinks and chatted with each other.  Had some snacks too – no real dinner or even lunch today, just lots of snacks, but that seemed to be enough and we all called it an early night around 9:30/10pm.

Relaxing in the forward cockpit (aka front porch).  This was a great place to relax at night!

Friday Day 7

Today our plan was to tour Virgin Gorda.  We got up at a decent time, but were slow getting going.  I had hoped to be at the Baths early to avoid any possible cruise ship crowds, but it looked like that wouldn’t be the case.  We finally headed out and made it there by 9:30.  We had breakfast and then hiked down to the Baths.  We hiked through to Devil’s Bay, stopping for a swim along the way.  Once at Devil’s Bay, we saw a couple in the rough surf trying to make it to shore and having trouble.  I didn’t realize how much trouble until the made it in and the woman was pretty much pushed up on shore and collapse.  We helped her up and got her over to a rock where she sat and caught her breath for a while.  Replaying it in my head, I’m pretty sure she was drowning.  It didn’t occur to me at the time, since she didn’t look distressed, but that’s exactly the problem when you are drowning, you don’t wave your arms and act like they do in the movies – you are very still and silent as she was and continued to be for quite some time once on shore.  Fortunately she was ok.  This is another great reason to skip swimming in to the baths and go via car.  Surf was sporadic though, so timing was really the issue, but that’s hard to tell as you swim in.

After hanging a bit at Devil’s Bay we turned around and headed back through the Baths and back up the way we came.  We stopped at Top of the Baths again to wash our feet, have a drink and relax in the pool for a bit.  After our drinks, we headed out to stop at Spanish Town.  Stephanie, Andy and I did a wreck course and we needed to pick up our certification cards.  We stopped, grabbed the cards and did a little shopping and continued on.  It was starting to get late so we headed right towards Hog Heaven where we had some drinks, enjoyed the view and had some lunch.  Stu ordered the chicken.  Apparently one of their relatives was nearby.  Every time he took a bit, a chicken let out a call.  It was funny for awhile, but boy was this chicken persistent!  Food, drinks and views were excellent!  On our way out, we saw why the food was so fresh!  There was a group of pigs roaming around.  We stopped for some pictures and then headed back to Leverick.  Dropped off the key to the rental at the office and headed back to the boat.  It was now about 5pm and we had the BBQ around 7:30. 

Their food is really fresh!!

So we spent a couple hours relaxing and getting cleaned up.  Close to 7, we decided we were hungry again and headed over to the BBQ, grabbed a drink and then Paula showed us to our table.  We headed up to the buffet and we enjoyed the great food!  I ended up making a 2^nd trip.  We relaxed talking to the table next to us and drank buschwhackers while waiting for the Jumbies!  They finally made their appearance and we’re great!  IF you haven’t done the BBQ and Jumbies, you really should.  Our group had a blast and would do it again in a 2^nd.  This was our 3^rd time and we loved it.  At the end, they did their typical pool splash, but unlike last time we saw them, two of them jumped in!

Stephanie and I were exhausted at this point, so we headed back to the boat and called it a night.