Village Cay Marina (again) 1/23/08

January 23 Lavers Cruise posting

January 13: Great weather. Dinghy ashore and walk to and explore the Anneberg Sugar Plantation ruins, followed by snorkeling around Waterlemon Cay. We saw barracuda, trumpet fish, a sting ray, living coral (wonder of wonders), sea urchins and much more. We then motor the short distance over to Soper’s Hole where we clear in again to the BVI. Lunch at Pussers, where we are entertained by a steel band. We decide to spend the night there, and go for a walk on Frenchman’s Cay. Wonderful steak dinner and, guess what, early to bed.

January 14: Off the mooring by 8:00 for the motor trip upwind to Tortola Yacht Services in Road Town for rudder repairs and an attempt to rebed the keel. The boat is hauled by 10:00, the bottom washed and the rudder out by early afternoon. We find that several welds have given way, and we are lucky that the rudder is still in the boat. First report is that the repairs will take over a week. Everyone is devastated. The Elvings decide to stay a couple of days at Long Bay, a luxury resort near the west end of Tortola. Larry and Elisabeth stay on the boat. We find we can shower at the Moorings nearby, so it is reasonably tolerable.

January 15 – January 18: Tortola Yacht Services works really hard at getting us out in a reasonable time. Elisabeth’s tears at the welder’s shop seem to have their effect, and by Friday afternoon the rudder is rebuilt and back in the boat, the bottom has been freshly painted and Singoalla is lifted in the slings to help with the rebedding. We can’t drop the keel to do it right because some of the bolts are under the mast step and inaccessible. The new water pump and forward hatch gasket we have ordered from Defender arrive, and Larry installs them on Monday and Tuesday. The pump works marvelously – quiet and effective – and there are no more leaks! On Wednesday night we have dinner at Brandywine Bay – good, but not up to the usual standard, probably because they are preoccupied with a large party of politicians who come in at about the same time. Thursday we take the ferry to Virgin Gorda and thoroughly explore the Baths. Back to the Moorings (where Elvings have now moved to) for dinner.

Ursula, Larry & Stefan on the ferry to Virgin Gorda

Elisabeth & Stefan at the baths

Rudder with tangs re-welded

Look, a brand new rudder!

January 19: Julian Smith (manager of TYS) comes in Saturday morning especially to launch Singoalla. He and Larry try to tighten the keel bolts with marginal success. The boat is launched by 10:00, and we leave before noon to head for the Bight on Norman Island. We sail over quickly with reefed jib and no main in 20+ knots of wind. Comfortable and quick. In the Bight we find Rockhopper, with Maria Lindbom, Bengt’s former neighbor, on board. We celebrate being back on the water with champagne, a great steak dinner, good wine and excellent spirits.

January 20: It’s still blowing pretty hard, so we go ashore for a nice walk on Norman Island. Nice chat with Maria and Bob who are going up as we are coming down. Downwind sail in building wind to Soper’s Hole, where we take the last available mooring. Larry’s and Elisabeth’s permission expires today, so we have to leave the BVI. We think about going by ferry to St. John, but the idea comes too late to make the round rip same day. We clear out and motor to Cruz Bay, wait for the ferries to leave and clear in to the USVI. (The customs officials recognize us by now and there is huge room for improvement in speeding up this bureaucratic system) We motor back to Maho Bay for the night, just in time to go below while another rain squall comes through. Grilled salmon dinner below by candlelight, sherbet for dessert (the new refrigeration system makes this possible for the first time).

We had planned to sail to St Martin today, but the weather is definitely not cooperating. It would be a long slog in fairly heavy winds, directly upwind. We decide to hang around the BVI and wait for a weather window. The forecast says that it will be sometime after the 23rd, so the Elvings will fly back to St Martin, and the Bolinders who arrive on Friday will have to take a Liat puddlejumper to Tortola from St Martin where we had planned to pick them up. Right now it looks like Saturday/Sunday will be a favorable time to make the jump.

January 21: We had rain all night, but are able to go ashore for breakfast at Maho Camps. This time we make it by 9:25. Omelettes all around. A very quick reach under jib alone to Jost Van Dyke, where we clear back in to the BVI. Rain most of the afternoon, but it clears a little in the late afternoon so we go ashore and walk over to the very pretty White Bay to the west of Great Harbor. An obligatory beer at Foxy’s and an abortive shopping attempt at the tee shirt shop, then back to Singoalla for a grilled chicken dinner under a very bright almost-full moon.

January 22: Elisabeth and Larry go ashore to Christine’s bakery for fresh banana bread and a couple of still warm baguettes. After breakfast we motor to Sandy Cay, where we plan to snorkel. The rain has stopped, but the wind is blowing 20 to 25 knots, so the anchorage is very uncomfortable. Elisabeth, Stefan and Ursula go for a short swim and soon we are on our way again. We motor against the wind up the north side of Tortola, pass Guana Island and around Little Camanoe to Trellis Bay where we plan to pick up a mooring so Stefan and Ursula have an easy walk to the airport tomorrow. We find that there is some sort of full moon party tonight so by 1:00 every last mooring is taken as well as all reasonable (and some unreasonable) anchoring places. We go over to Marina Cay for second choice, only to be just not quick enough for the last mooring. OK, still no problem, we go back around Great Camanoe to Lee Bay where we attempt to anchor in 20 feet of water. We find that we are dragging pretty quickly, so we raise the anchor only to find that the anchor is no longer attached to the chain! You should have seen Elisabeth's facial expression as she was handling the windless. We have a spare anchor but it is pretty well buried, so we decide that Plan D is to sail the rest of the way around Tortola to Road Town (ugh!), and stay; at Village Cay so we can replace the anchor. We did at least get a really nice run, mostly wing and wing, to Road Town. Farewell dinner with the Elvings at the Village Cay restaurant. Great company, so-so food. Back to the boat we are all exhausted and more or less collapse after a half a glass of wine.

January 23: The marina manager at Village Cay tells Larry that the local dive shop frequently has anchors that they have recovered while diving. Chris at the dive shop says he just sold a Delta anchor of the type that we lost last week, but he doesn’t have any Deltas of our size just now. However, he is going to be near Camanoe Island this afternoon to place a mooring for someone, so he volunteers to pick our anchor up for much less than the cost of a new anchor. We extend our stay at the marina by a day to wit for him. Stefan and Ursula say their goodbyes and leave for the airport at about 9:30, and Larry and Elisabeth have a day of laundry, maintenance and provisioning. Last breakfast with the Elvings,who were wonderful company, as always. Bad news -- the diver couldn't find the anchor. He says that there is broken coral all over the place, and the anchor probably caught under a piece of coral and the shackle just broke. We will look tomorrow at his collection of used (recovered) anchors to see if we can use one.

Last breakfast with the Elvings 01-23-08