Our time in St. Thomas was a blur. We worked, we cleaned, we provisioned, and we made it to Duffy’s Love Shack. We knocked ALMOST everything off of our to-do list (… we have started a new one already!) before we picked my mom up at the airport on Wednesday night. On Thursday we cast off the dock lines and set out for a Virgin Islands Adventure.
Alright, enough relaxing – time to get moving! I was very surprised how quickly we were ready to get off that comfy mooring ball and sail away. I guess we are finally getting a little saltier these days. Anegada is the northernmost island in the BVI’s and it couldn’t be more different geographically OR culturally.
We set up camp here in Virgin Gorda on Wednesday after six days on the high seas and by Friday we were already recovered and itching to get out and explore this new piece of paradise. We rented a two door yellow Jeep for the day so that we could see the sights and knock out a few errands while we were at it. We made it to The Baths, we resort hopped our way to Hog Heaven, and then we spent the evening in Leverick Bay to wash our wet salty clothes and pick up some provisions.
Crew morale was high as we headed out into the North Atlantic for the third time. The sails went up inside St. George’s harbor, Bermuda and didn’t come down until we were about to pass through the channel markers guiding us into North Sound in Virgin Gorda, BVI. The passage took 6 days or 144 hours almost to the minute, which was an entire day shorter than we expected. But that’s what you get when the winds are honking and you are sailing a race boat! We worked hard, we dodged squalls, we ate cinnamon rolls and we had a seriously good time.
I mentioned before that the mooring in Paradise Lakes is probably my favorite place we have ever stayed. After this last front the blew through, it is definitely my favorite. We finally got “used to” the threat of gale force gusts (34-40 kts), but when we got a weather forecast for strong storm force gusts (48-55 kts)…it was time to hunker down.
We are anchored back in St. George’s. As soon as we passed the last channel marker, Otto gave up. We took it apart, thought about continuing on without it, and finally made the decision to turn around and get it fixed. Two people hand steering for 7 days would be dangerous.
We checked back in with customs and made an appointment for Monday morning with the Raymarine dealer. Looks like we will be here for Christmas after all.
We are bummed – it was great out there and it FELT great to be out there. But we are proud of our decision to turn around. We’ll keep our chins up and get our autopilot up and running so that we can take advantage of our next weather window…which is hopefully just around the corner.
Twas the night before Friday on ol’ Stella Blue,
Some wine in the cockpit and a carol or two.
The stockings were hung from the portholes with care,
Christmas treats with the Thatchers we were going to share.
When what to our disbelieving eyes did we see,
A note from Chris Parker, to Logan and me.
It’s time to head south, if you can be ready.
The winds should be calm and the seas should be steady.
So back to St. George’s we sailed in a flash,
To run a few errands and make our mad dash!
The tanks are topped off and the engine’s a-go,
But most importantly, Logan and I feel ready to go.
So off into the Atlantic we’ll sail away,
Later Bermuda! Virgin Gorda, we’re on our way!!!
Good question. We have been hanging around Bermuda for just about one month now. It took a good two weeks for us to even start thinking about getting back out onto the open seas and now that we feel ready, we are waiting for damn near perfect weather.
So, what ARE we waiting for?
Holidays are tough without your family. Holidays are tough when the wind is blowing and blowing and blowing. Holidays are tough without pie! This was our first Thanksgiving as married people and I was planning to prepare a lovely canned ham with sides of boxed potatoes and canned peas! Enter Jimmy – who called and saved us from not just one, but all three of our holiday afflictions.
Stella at anchor in St. George, Bermuda
Logan and I are always excited to sail up to a new island unknown to us, but neither one of us have EVER been more excited to see the glow of island lights off in the distance as we were on Sunday night. Bermuda was on the horizon and we were going to make it.