Azure Lagoons & Lush Rainforests ….. April 2014

22 – 30 April:  Trellis Bay, Beef Is, BVI to Water Is, USVI -  18 19N 64 56W


Time for Some Island Hopping

After catching up on sleep, chores and internet we finally left Saba Rock in North Sound on Virgin Gorda and started heading westwards, not the preferred direction when our plans are to head east and south down the Caribbean Chain for the next few months but we still had so much to see in the BVI’s and we were pencilling in Carnival in the USVI’s early May – so backwards it was.

The huge benefit was, after going to windward all season, we finally got to sail off downwind, what a treat!  First stop was Trellis Bay on Beef Island, a popular anchorage as it is adjacent to the airport and has regular ferries to all the other islands.   We had had the Tuesday night entertainment at the Last Resort  recommended, but just our luck, due to Easter there was no music so we missed out.  Unfortunately the planes and ferries didn't stop - it wasn't one of our quieter nights.
 
Trellis Bay is known in the BVI’s for its wild full moon parties (which we had passed on the previous week, think we are getting too old for “wild”!)  The settlement ashore was quite a funky tiny place with a few shacky beach bars,  a couple of arty shops and some interesting sculptures on the beach.
  
From the Depths to the Heights

We sailed along the top of Tortola and stopped for coffee and snorkeling at Monkey Point on Guana Island, a small National Park daytime mooring field.  We were lucky to find a vacant buoy, got our flippers and snorkels out and jumped overboard.  It wasn’t a spectacular snorkelling site but the best we had seen in quite some time with an interesting variety of fish, some species we weren’t familiar with.  We saw an octopus, only the 3rd we have ever seen (and we hadn’t taken the camera!)  so that was a bonus then we swam through clouds of tiny fish, thousands of them clustered together close to the rocks, presumably hiding from their predators.



We spent a few nights in lovely Cane Garden Bay, clear waters, golden sandy beach, palms swaying in the breeze, steep to hills covered in tropical vegetation provided a stunning rich background, a top spot. Apparently this opinion is shared by the tour operators who offer it as a half day excursion to cruise ship passengers – about 1000 white plastic sun loungers were stacked in piles ready for deployment and rental the minute the hordes arrived for their BVIs “beach experience”. 

But for those of us who spend our days at sea the attraction here for us was to head for the hills.   We had met up in the anchorage with Canadians Janet and Jeff on Truant III  who we first saw back up in Newport, Rhode Island over summer.  They had been recommended a hike up on the top of Tortola within the National Park and invited us to join them.

It was a hot steamy day so we did cheat just a little and took a taxi to the National Park entry, this would have been a serious uphill slog, even the 4x4 struggled in parts.  At the top we were given a map of the trails and off we set.  We were all amazed by the verdant forest and lush surroundings, this is in total contrast to the dry vegetation we have seen on the other neighbouring islands and it is was an absolute delight to hear the birdlife, see and smell the thick rain forest and hike through such picturesque and shaded surroundings.



We spent about 3 hours on the various trails in the park and summited Tortola, no grand vista from the highest point, just wonderful mature trees supporting a truly diverse ecosystem up high in the forest. 

Rum Tasting Before Lunch!!

We took the taxi again, think that descending would have been even harder on the legs than going up!  We disembarked back at the start of Cane Garden Bay and went off to explore the rather “quaint” Callwood Rum Distillery, home of Arundel Cane Rum. 

This is what could be termed either a boutique distillery, cottage industry or just a distillery where time has stood still since the 19th century - everything certainly appeared to be in its “original condition!!”  We had a wander round this interesting rustic operation, out in the back yard under a heavily laden mango tree we found the press that extracts the juice from the sugar cane .
 
 


Out front the fire was being stoked, a big pot suspended above with secret ingredients bubbling away. Inside where skipper partook in some tasting the layers of dust everywhere really did look quite authentic, it was just great.  It’s the oldest continuously operating pot distillery in the Caribbean, we suspect very little has changed in over 200 years of production.  With 2 bottles of their finest 10 year old purchased it was time to head back to Balvenie for the afternoon – it had been a hectic morning.


Then Lobster For Dinner!


Back at the dinghy dock we ran into Gord & Ginny, our Canadian cruiser friends who are currently having a break from cruising and are running a 56ft catamaran Copper Penny.  They had the owners John and Lesley onboard and we were kindly invited by them for lobster dinner.  We had a most enjoyable evening onboard, excellent company and surrounds.  Copper Penny is like a swanky city apartment and Ginny’s gourmet dinner was superb.  If you’re looking for a 5 star charter holiday in the BVIs, then look no further.


It was time for us to move on, we sailed over to the neighbouring island of Jost Van Dyke planning to stay a couple of nights but the wind angle had changed and the anchorages were too exposed.  So back to Tortola again where we found good coverage at busy Sopers Hole and stayed a couple of nights before checking out of the British Virgins and setting sail downwind back to Charlotte Amalie in the US Virgins.

We were back for a few reasons, we needed to source a new watermaker part, wanted to catch up again with Rob & Sarah on Serafina before they shipped home and …….

It Was Carnival Time

  

The Busy BVI’s ….. April 2014

03 – 22 April:  Road Town to North Sound, BVIs – 18 30N 64 21W

Racing, Rocking and Rolling


The BVI Spring Regatta was held at the beginning of April.  Marketed as 3 days of racing in the sheltered waters of the British Virgin Islands it sounded like just the ticket to satisfy skippers racing urges for a little while longer.  We anchored off Road Town, the main town on the island of Tortola, close to Hotel California Too, the Santa Cruz 70 that Mark was crewing on for the regatta.

We had heard such good reports of the anchorages in the BVIs, most offered sheltered bays tucked away behind islands or reefs with gentle breezes and flat seas.  This, quite clearly, was not one of them!!  We had a period of very unsettled weather - accelerated trade winds howled through the anchorage making it very bouncy and rolly, constant squalls with heavy downpours and stronger winds brought choppy seas and to top it off we were on the main thoroughfare to the marinas.  Now you wouldn’t think we could get much wake from marina traffic but this is the Moorings and Sunsail Charter Yacht Base, and I understand this is the largest charter fleet in the world.  We are not talking busy, it was manic.
 


While Mark enjoyed 3 days of wet, boisterous racing with Hotel California Too once again taking line honours in every race, I endured the anchorage even unable to take much respite ashore as the weather was so awful, c’est la vie!  Once the racing ended we were able to squeeze into the inner lagoon anchorage, less than 100 metres away but flat, flat flat – at last we could actually enjoy Road Town.
 
Unscheduled Fireworks Display

One night we were awakened by blue flashing lights and sirens.  On checking what the disturbance was it was clear a large fire was underway.  From our view point it appeared to be a large motor yacht in nearby Village Cay Marina, but it was actually an adjacent restaurant on land - the fire took hold quickly as it was fed by steady winds.
 
The marina came alive with activity at 4am, most yachts with crew onboard departed as flames and cinders bore down on them.  Luckily we were above the wind line as we had no desire to surrender our coveted position and return back out to the larger lumpy anchorage.   Next morning we surveyed the damage, the restaurant was just a pile of charcoal, several yachts that had not moved had blistered paint, burnt decks and holes in canvas work; all in all quite a mess.
  
Moving On To Island Time

When the weather settled we moved on from Road Town and started enjoying quieter bays – yes there are literally 100’s of charter yachts around but there are plenty of anchorages to go around, even some empty ones. We stayed a few nights in peaceful Benures Bay on Norman Island with a handful of others.  The only disturbances were the dawn chorus of land birds, the incredible splashes made by the pelicans as they dove down to catch dinner and the expelling of breath of the turtles as they surface from the incredibly clear water - magic.

We moved on a few miles to adjacent Peter Island and anchored in front of all the mooring balls in Great Harbour.  We had come to meet up with our Canadian friends Gordon and Ginny who we first met in Darwin in 2006 while they were cruising on their yacht Ascension.  We travelled many miles with them and last saw them in Greece in June 2009.  They are now based in the BVIs and run a beautiful 56foot catamaran  Copper Penny available for charter.  We were lucky to catch up between charters, the intervening 5 years vanished in a blink and we had a couple of fun days with them just like old times.

Even More Reunions

We made our way up to Virgin Gorda, we even shook the cobwebs out of the main and had a pleasant sail with only a few tacks to avoid the odd island that got in our way.   We anchored in North Sound by Macushla then the next day Serafina arrived too as planned.


I don’t think we have ever had a season where we have kept meeting up with so many boats we know, some we haven’t seen for years.  Another one of these was fellow kiwis Martha and Bryce on Silver Fern, not seen since Thailand 2007. Mark and Bryce had many a rum and beer while discussing and dissecting last summers Americas Cup, a raw subject still for both of them.

This long term cruisers community we are part of is a small one spread over all the oceans of the world, it is very special when we come together, even for a short time and have the chance to catch up and share our stories.  Then we say our sad farewells and wonder when or if we will next see each other.

We sat out strong winds in North Sound for a week, the charterers came and went daily, the cruisers stayed put.  The charterers provide ongoing  entertainment -  trying to master the art of picking up mooring balls without losing their boat hooks overboard or breaking them in two; putting up or dropping mainsails without going to windward and just the simple things like how to get in and out of the dinghy without falling overboard.  All good stuff!  


Easily Whiling Away the Days

The windy week passed in a blur, could that have been due to an excess of Painkillers, the local Virgin Islands rum cocktail?  There did seem to be daily gatherings either on someone’s yacht, on the beach or at the bar on Saba Rock or the Bitter End Yacht Club.  So many boats, so many happy hours!!
We did fit in an excellent walk one morning that provided an outstanding vista of North Sound and the neighbouring islands owned by the rich and famous.
As with all good parties this too could not go on forever, Silver Fern headed west to the US Virgins, Macushla set sail east to St Barths, Serafina headed back to the US Virgins for watermaker repairs and Balvenie stayed for a couple more days.

Time For A Few Quiet Days & Nights!!

Spain To America In 14 Miles ….. Mar/Apr 2014

25 Mar – 03 Apr: Brewers Bay to Lameshur Bay, US Virgins – 18 18N 64 43W

Back to Civilisation

We had a lovely sail across from Culebrita in the Spanish Virgin Islands to St Thomas, our first stop in the US Virgin Islands.  We were hard on the wind again, but the breeze was light and the seas flat, and when a couple of catamarans left the anchorage with us it was race on and a tacking dual ensued.  Both catamarans were flying German flags (red rag to a bull for skipper) and just as we were about to claim victory they veered off for a different destination, spoilsports!

We stopped just one night in Brewers Bay, clear water, white sandy beach, flat seas, great wifi – what more could you want?  Oh, did I mention the adjacent airport, excellent for plane spotting and it wasn’t TOO noisy.  We met up and had a great night with Brits Mark and Sue on Macushla who we first met back in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and although we have kept in regular contact on our daily SSB Radio Net we hadn’t crossed paths since.

Next day we moved a few more miles around to the capital, Charlotte Amalie.  We entered through the western channel and passed a couple of hundred yachts, anchored and moored – the most we had seen since Georgetown in the Bahamas, plus there were 2 cruise ships docked, back to civilisation and tourism we thought – and then we got to the busy bit!!  3 more ginormous cruise ships were docked downtown, super yachts lay squeezed together fender to fender in the marina, and the harbour was choked full of private yachts of all shapes and sizes and amazingly the odd turtle. 

We had been warned the Virgin Islands were busy, but we didn’t mind - there was just so much to watch, float planes landing and taking off through the yachts under sail, party boats full of rum punched pink skinned holidaymakers, all manner of floating vessels providing harbour cruisers day and night, cruise ships and super yachts coming and going, and the odd mad kayaker, windsurfer or kitesurfer weaving there way through– it was all on for young and old.

Turning Into Social Butterflies

Evenings were spent socializing, we had caught back up with Koza, Americans on C-Time who we had done our inland travel with in Dominican Republic, Brits on Miss Molly who we last saw in Grenada 2 years ago arrived, as did Brits on Goldcrest – last seen on their previous boat Red Panda in Malta.  For a few days life turned into a social whirlwind, it was just great.  It is the people we meet along the way that truly make this lifestyle enjoyable and this season has been excellent, meeting new friends and reconnecting with old.

Ashore the town seemed totally geared to the cruise ship market, a stroll along the waterfront had us passing Gucci and Prada stores with minimalistic window displays of one handbag apiece, top end jewellery stores by the dozen occupied well renovated old brick storehouses and duty free liquor stores offered every brand of alcohol imaginable. 

Across the road the outdoor market displayed the usual tourist fare of t-shirts, sunhats and sarongs.  Sensibly we didn’t venture ashore when there were about 8,000 cruise ship passengers out shopping, instead we went for a look on a cruise ship free day and the place was almost a ghost town.

Time For Some Serious Racing

Koza had moved on to nearby Christmas Cove and Jim (a serious multi hull racer from Brisbane) had got talking to the owner of  Hotel California Too  a 70ft Santa Cruz  race boat anchored nearby participating in the St Thomas Regatta and had got himself a crew position and had managed to get Mark one too. 

So we had an early start out of Charlotte Amalie and were anchored in Christmas Cove on Great St James Island before 8am.  Mark and Jim had a blast of a time racing on Hotel California Too and they took line honours  in every race.  The final evening party and prize giving of any regatta always has a unique atmosphere and was a lot of fun.  The owner was keen to keep his new gun crew together and asked Jim and Mark to crew for him again in the upcoming British Virgin Islands Regatta with further talk of St Barths and Antigua Race weeks.  One step at a time I said, BVI’s yes, the others – well we will see!  

Finding Some Peace & Quiet

Our English friends Rob & Sarah on Serafina joined us in Christmas Cove, it was great to see them again.  We had left Maine together last September on a day sail down the coast then ended up in different anchorages and never caught them again, it was great to finally reconnect.

We both moved on along the southern coast of St John and picked up mooring buoys in the National Park anchorage of Great Lameshur Bay, geographically only 15 miles away from the capital but in reality locked in another far more peaceful world.

We had a couple of days enjoying our surroundings, did a long hike to some elusive rock carvings (must have missed a turn somewhere) but instead found the ruins of a house that was once home to sugar plantation owners, the paths from the bay deep below were well overgrown, surrounding trees were engulfing the remains.  The National Park (the island donated many years ago by the Rockefeller family) was interesting, we saw mongoose and deer on our walk then snorkelled the edges of the bay and swam with turtles. 

Off To The British Virgin’s For More Racing

Popping Back to Puerto Rico ….. March 2014

19 – 21 March 2014:  Ferry & Land Travel to Puerto Rico

Sojourn to San Juan

Although we have just spent a couple of weeks cruising along the south coast of Puerto Rico we didn’t stop anywhere long enough to do some land travel.  It’s a compact island with an extensive road network but has almost no public transport system.  It is also rumoured to have the highest percentage of cars per population in the world and infamous traffic jams!

Everyone we have spoken to that has been to Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, spoke very highly about the old walled town and fort area.  In those days the Spanish Conquistadores led the world in murdering, starving, raping and enslaving the native population in their driven desire for gold but they also built beautiful enduring cities.  As we are fans of Spanish architecture and are always happy to experience a slice of Europe whenever possible we decided to travel back to Puerto Rico by ferry from neighbouring Culebra, and see for ourselves how bad the traffic jams could be and to check out San Juans beauty first hand.

 

In company with Jim and Carola off Koza we caught the 6.30am ferry to Fajardo on Puerto Rico.  Rather an early start for our excursion we thought! Lenny off Aussie boat Feijao was a superstar taking us ashore at 5.45am so we wouldn’t have to leave our dinghies tied ashore for 2 nights, and also kept an eye on Balvenie and Koza in our absence, thanks Lenny and Gina.

We arrived in Fajardo, collected our prebooked car from Island of the World Rentals (after spending quite some time checking all the dents/dings and scratches duly noted on the outgoing contract!!), eventually we found our way to the highway north and in no time at all were in San Juan, not a traffic jam in sight. 

We made our way into the old town without any hiccups, found a parking close to our accommodation at SJ Suites  and were sitting back enjoying an excellent breakfast in a very Spanish cafe before 10am.  It’s amazing what you can achieve if you get up at 5am!!

Snapshots of San Juan

We spent the day sightseeing, it’s just a small old town area and it was a delight just wandering the streets; admiring the architecture - restored grand public buildings,  renovated residential homes, churches and cathedral, plazas and statues and beautiful blue cobblestone streets.

On the periphery is the town wall, several feet deep and extremely high – combined with the 6 storey high impressive El Morro Fort the defences for San Juan town and harbour were second to none and although there were several attacks by the British, Dutch and French over many years the Spanish never lost San Juan and their control over the gateway to the Caribbean.

We explored this massive fort, a warren of rooms, armouries, batteries, lookouts, quarters and dungeons hidden inside it over 6 levels.  Probably the most impressive example we have seen in our travels and possibly the largest.

Compact & Cute

We spent 24 hours in San Juan, but it is very compact so we felt we did it justice.  We covered nearly every street, alleyway and plaza, ate local empanadas in a tree lined plaza for lunch while watching heavily armed policemen patrol nearby government buildings at one end and tourists (yes, that includes Jim) having their photos taken with iguanas at the other end.

We had pina coladas in the bar that invented them, dinner in an “authentic” (touristy but very good) restaurant, walked the cool and shaded empty streets and harbour promenade early morning, just the 4 of us and hundreds of sleepy cats then returned to our previous mornings breakfast find for another excellent meal, bacon and egg toasted rolls and espresso coffees for 4 – US$20,  excellent.

Space … the Final Frontier

We navigated our way out of San Juan with only one wrong turn and headed east towards the Karst Country and the Arecibo Observatory.  The observatory contains the worlds largest radar and radio telescope set above a 20 acre big dish (that’s the dish below us in the photo).  Launched in 1992 the idea is that this technology will allow us to chat with all the aliens out there in space, but has any one told the aliens they need to build one so they can talk back?? At $10 each entrance fee we felt it was overpriced, just a shame we didn’t see the ”buy one get one free voucher” in our tourist book until after we left!!

We drove through the Karst Country, hundreds of steep knobbly hills have been formed by water sinking into the limestone creating lots of sinkholes, which in turn has created the hills as these are the bits that haven’t sunk.  They were all very lush with vegetation and quite unlike anything we have seen before.  Unfortunately they do not photograph well, the different contours are so close together, steep and dense you lose the 3D effect.

Transiting Puerto Ricos Spine

We travelled along the high backbone of the country, climbing up and down then up again, on a maze of roads through some rather uninspiring villages and into the Central Mountains and cloud forest.  It is unfair to be too critical of the quality of the housing here, it is right in the middle of the hurricane belt and concrete block housing is the most sturdy.  However rows of little square block houses detracted from the natural beauty of the surroundings in the cloud forest high on the top ridge running through this island, there was certainly scope for improvement.

Carola found us a bed for the night at the almost new El Canon Guest House in Barranquitas.  It wasn’t an easy task finding somewhere to stay, most tourists to the mountains visit as day trippers from the coastal resorts or San Juan and there were few accommodation options.  The air was definitely cooler at altitude and the cloud forest lived up to its name, I took this photo during a brief break in the rain, minutes later we were engulfed in mist again. 

A Comedy of Mishaps

Next morning we headed east, the winding roads continued and it was slow going.  We had intended to detour to El Yungue National Park, but decided we had all seen enough trees to last us for a few more weeks so headed back to Fajardo early to have plenty of time to do some shopping at West Marine and Walmart (it’s a long time since we left the USA!) before the 7.30pm ferry.

Our foray into West Marine took way longer than planned as we were redeeming reward vouchers worth $240 and they were in $10 increments, 24 separate voucher numbers of over 10 digits needed to be input into the till by a not so speedy sales assistant.  This meant valuable time was ticking away so it was a speedy run around Walmart when we decided to catch the 3.30pm ferry instead of the 7.30pm as planned. 

Things turned a little pear shaped when Jim opened the car to unlock the boot, turned on ignition to get the aircon going then closed the door and all the doors locked - with key in the ignition!  But at least the boot was open, so we emptied the bags out, pulled down the small divider into the back seat and I just squeezed through (no photos thank goodness).

Back on the road we then missed the turnoff for the ferry terminal (a sign would have been very useful) so travelled several extra miles until the next motorway turnoff, time was getting very tight when we finally found the waterfront so we dropped Jim and Carola by the ferry terminal with their bags and the shopping to get the tickets while we took the car back.  

When we emptied the car only Marks bag was there, had Jim taken my bag by mistake or was it still in the carpark at Walmart?   While we were debating our next move Carola arrived with my bag, Jim had picked it up thinking it was Carolas and they knew we would be worried when they realized, so now three of us at the car hire office and Jim at the ferry terminal. 

With paper work finally completed it was a mad dash back to the terminal where things slowed down momentarily, the ferry had broken down – we weren’t going anywhere!   It was at this point when we were consolidating the shopping bags and packs that Carola realized that her pack was now missing.   She was sure she had given it to Jim when she brought mine to the car hire office, Jim couldn’t remember but was sure he hadn’t lost it, I thought she only had my bag but wasn’t sure either and Mark just didn’t have a clue!  It was a black day pack, can you imagine how many black day packs were sitting on the floor in the ferry terminal??!! or was it at the car hire office or possibly in Walmarts carpark? So off Carola went to the car hire office – again - and happily returned with her pack, all was well at last, we just needed a ferry.

We adjourned to a nearby bar for the afternoon and early evening, seemed the most sensible thing to do.  We were all finally accommodated on the car ferry which docked at 10pm, but of course we had no dinghies ashore, we had never planned to be back so late.  I had started chatting to a couple that looked liked fellow cruisers (its quite easy to pick us amongst the tourists) they were a lovely French couple off yacht Papaya and they offered to take us back to our boats at anchor, this was really kind of them as they weren’t even in the same anchorage as us.   Finally we were home by 10.30pm.

A Perfect End to a Comical Afternoon