Still Like a Virgin

A reasonable 9:00 am departure on May 14th had us sailing the short 11 miles along the eastern shore of St. Thomas and crossing over to the western shore of probably the most beautiful island in the Eastern Caribbean, St. John in the US Virgin Islands. After passing by some famous resorts, including Caneel Bay, we rounded the corner into Hawksnest Bay, with a white sand beach stretching from one end to the other like the smile of a fat Cheshire cat.

Hawksnest Bay, St. John.

We took a mooring buoy just off the point on the western side and then just sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the scenery. Most of St. John is a National Park so there are fairly strict rules about what you can and cannot do. We went snorkeling around the boat then took the dingy into the beach and walked a short distance along the shore, which has two small resorts and several private homes. A little more snorkeling just to make sure we hadn't missed anything and then back to the boat for dinner and an early bedtime.

A beautiful day for sailing in the tropics.

On the 15th we crossed over to Great Harbour Jost Van Dyke to clear into the British Virgin Islands. We decided Great Harbour would be a lot easier than trying to clear in at Tortola. After the usual formalities at Customs we got in the dingy and headed back to the boat while noticing some commotion on a large cat next to us. Strange story. Turned out a lady on the chartered cat had reached out to grab something and the line caught her ring finger and tore off her diamond wedding ring, then somehow got wrapped in her diamond necklace and that also flew off into the water. She had every teenage kid on the boat diving down to find the ring and necklace, and amazingly while we were there someone found the ring.

We decided to keep sailing to gain a little time on our laggardly schedule and sailed up the sound to Trellis Bay, located right next to Beef Island Airport, which serves all of the BVIs. Dingied in to get some supplies and talked to a nice Irish girl working as a potter at the local art studio. We were hoping to catch a cab into Tortola to find a pharmacy, but it was already 4:15 pm. Someone told us about a closer pharmacy so we walked over to the airport and grabbed a cab to take us to East End where a pharmacy was still open. When you are used to battling the US healthcare system, the system down here is real simple. Walk into a pharmacy, tell them what you want and why, and then they give you the drugs. We had been looking for Stugeron for the last year. Stugeron, also known generically as cinnarizine, is widely accepted among ocean sailors as the best seasick remedy around. Unlike Dramamine, it doesn't make you drowsy and you can take it when you are already seasick. It has worked great for us up to date. Unfortunately, for some reason it is not sold in the US. The last time we purchased it was through a Canadian online pharmacy who got it from England at an outrageous price, I think around $75 for 100 tabs. Down here its about $40 for 75 tablets and in St. Martin it was $6 for 30 tablets. We bought every box they had on the shelf.

We left early the next morning for a nice 12-mile sail on a close reach up to Virgin Gorda. When we were here about 36 years ago, entering Virgin Gorda Sound was a heart-wrenching experience with reefs on both sides and only maps for navigation. Now days with GPS powered chart plotters it seemed you could land a 747 in the passage. The other big change is the sheer number of charter boats, about 70% of them catamarans. Some of the charters are good sailors, but others definitely know they are sailing a rented boat. We are also amazed by the number of mooring buoys everywhere. In many places it is now mandatory to take a buoy rather than anchoring. Helps save the sea grass beds on the bottom.

Tied up to a mooring buoy right off Saba Rock Resort in Virgin Gorda Sound.

Saba Rock Resort in Virgin Gorda Sound.

We headed over to Saba Rock and took a mooring. They were having a special "free water fill up" with each mooring ball, which sounded like a good deal to us. Spent most of the afternoon getting our hookah rig set up so we could clean our dirty bottom after the long stay at Salinas.

Drinking an honorary "Mary Ann Sanders Bushwacker."

Went into the restaurant and had a couple of Bushwackers Happy Hour in honor of our good friend Mary Ann Sanders, queen of the Bushwacker, and watched as the resort guys "feed the fish" at 5:00 pm.

The fish were huge tarpon who milled alongside the dock until the guy threw in big chucks of fish and chicken bits. Apparently tarpon don't have teeth or something like that but they were 3 to 5 ft. long and scared the hell out of me.

The famous Bitter End Yacht Club at Virgin Gorda.

The next day we took at short run over to the Bitter End Yacht Club to look at super yachts, then back to our boat trying to decide when we should leave for St. Martin. We had to cross the Anegada Passage, another of those open ocean passages that can be bad in the wrong conditions, and according to Chris Parker's latest forecast today was "the last good day" to make the crossing. We were still thinking about it when we motored up to the Saba Rock dock to get our free water, and then made the decision to go for it. It was 3:00 pm and that was the departure time if we were going to make the overnight passage. Meryl was kind of pissed we did it on such little warning, but it turned out to be the right decision.

Richard Branson's personal paradise, Neckar Island.

As we exited Virgin Gorda Sound we motor sailed along Neckar Island on the left, the home of eclectic Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines. We think he was in residence since there were security patrol boats everywhere along the island.

As we rounded Pajaros Point the waves got bigger and naturally the wind was on the nose, but it wasn't super bad and the weather was nice so we heading southeast for the 73-mile motor sail to St. Martin. We fell off the wind at times trying to sail but we kept getting further off course, and with stronger winds/bigger waves forecast we figured getting there quicker was more important than saving some money on gas. We trudged along under main and staysail with an occasional larger wave breaking over the bow.

By the time nightfall came we were used to the motion (I didn't say we liked it, just that we were used to it by this time) and preserved throughout the night trading off watches. The only issue was that our AIS system was down for some reason (this naturally happens in the feared Anegada Passage of all places!) so we had to use the small display on our RAM mic (the remote VHF) to view if any ships were around (this part of the AIS was still working). I had a great book on my iPhone so I just settled in and made the best of it. It was nice when the sun came up that we could see the hills of St. Martin off in the distance.

The anchorage at Marigot Bay in St. Martin.

We were tired, covered with a thin layer of salt, and in clothes I wouldn't change the oil in at home, but we arrived safely. We anchored in St. Martin (the French side) in the Marigot Bay anchorage at 10:00 am along with about 50 other boats. Long night but very glad to finally be here.