BVI - sv "Puddle Duck"
Having spent the previous 2 or so weeks in Puerto Rico, where else would our four entrepid explorers go but back the BVIs for a bit of sailing in the heart of the hurricane season!!
...so we flew back to the BVI where we'd chartered a 40 foot catamaran ‘Puddle Duck’ for a weeks sailing. We were really excited as it was the first time we'd actually skippered by ourselves for so long. The whole week our motto was 'what could possibly go wrong?' which is quite ironic seeing as it's still hurricane season! Luckily we had excellent weather as hurricane Ike had passed over while we were in PR and the worst thing that happened all week was losing a towel that we had forgotten to peg properly to the railings.
The catamaran was a modern Robertson & Caine and capable of sleeping 10 so we had plenty of space to rattle around in, in fact Andy & I think it was probably bigger than our little cottage on Virgin Gorda! As September is the quietest month of the low season most of the restaurants were closed so our first stop was provisioning at the local supermarket and liquor store – guess which cost more?
After a very brief boat briefing from the Moorings base (they seemed to think that as we drive a dive boat every day we would know all about a sailing yacht) we set sail for our first destination of Cooper Island just in time for sundowners and dinner in the very laid back beach club.
Next stop was Virgin Gorda to pick up basic store cupboard items from our house and to show Richie who’s never been here before where we lived and around the island. After a whistle stop tour and obligatory photo stops on the pass, we headed back to the boat and onto our next mooring at the Dog Islands. Now normally yachts are only allowed to moor in the daytime here and certainly not overnight on a commercial dive operator ball, so guess what we did? It was one of the most secluded anchorages we had all week and after a very drunken dinner we soon found out the that rocky cliffs of the bay also provided fantastic acoustics for our stereo and the trampoline a fantastic danceloor. Needless to say it was a good job we were the only boat there!
Next morning after an early dive at the Chimney and as the day trippers started mooring alongside us we sheepishly unhooked and set off for Jost Van Dyke with a lunch stop at our old place of work Marina Cay.
The beauty of sailing in low season is that you can get away with using mooring balls for free and still be the only boat in the field. Diamond Cay on Jost Van Dyke was no exception to this so naturally we didn’t think anything of our solitude as we watched the dramatic moonrise over Sandy Spit. That was until the bugs started biting. Up until now we had been totally bug free but hadn’t realised how close we were to the mangroves and now the wind dropped completely. Lets just say it was the worst nights sleep we had all week and we set off fairly early the next day to try our hand at anchoring for the first time at Sandy Spit.
After an early morning dip we stopped at Little Harbour for lunch at one of our favourite beach bars, Sydney’s Peace & Love with it’s full scale honesty bar and Chinese laundry interior where drunk tourist leave their t-shirts hanging from the ceiling. Funnily enough our friend Colin’s T-shirt was still there from earlier in the year, if not a bit faded.
White Bay and the infamous Soggy Dollar Bar was the next on our itinerary and after an afternoon of drinking Painkillers and laughing at all the sunburnt tourists on day trips from St Thomas we collapsed back onto our trusty Puddle Duck to pass out for the rest of the evening.
Day 5 saw us running low on provisions so we headed into the pretty harbour of Soper’s Hole at the West End of Tortola, where Sheena almost rugby tackled another shopper for the last lettuce left on the shelf! Feeling that this deserved a celebratory drink we settled into the Pusser’s Bar and were enjoying the freedom of it all when Andy noticed the TV in the background showing HBOS, the bank we used to work for when we had ‘responsible’ jobs back in the UK. To our amazement and dismay it seemed that HBOS was the latest bank to fall foul of the current economic crisis and was announcing impending bankruptcy. Not only were we worried for our friends and colleagues back home, but what about our pensions and shares!! Oh well, nothing for it but to have another drink
After an afternoon snorkel at the Indians we headed into Pirates Bight on Norman Island, once famous as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ and now more infamous for the floating bar ‘The William Thornton’.
Sheena was already familiar with ‘Willy T’s’ from her hen day last year, but as Richie had never made the leap off the top deck we decided it had to be done again. The bar staff used to give away T Shirts for anyone daring or drunk enough to jump naked and ever since then it has gained a rather dodgy reputation, but even we were shocked to witness a rather ample local girl completely undress and allow the bar tender to have a tequila shot with a big difference! A couple of elderly retired pilots who we had been chatting to nearly had heart attacks just watching. As we intended to dive the Wreck of the R.M.S. Rhone the next day we used that as an excuse for a sharp exit!
The wreck of the Royal Mail Steamship the Rhone is the jewel in the diving crown of the BVI, so we had to take Sheena and Richie for one last dive there. After 140 years underwater she is still very much intact and covered in corals which attract large and small marine life. After a very nice dive we headed back to Peter Island for our last night before dropping our Sheena and Richie back at the airport.
Reluctant for our sailing adventure to end, after we dropped Sheena and Richie off at the airport Andy & I extended the lease on the boat for a few more days, just as the weather turned really windy. We circumnavigated Tortola again with the hope of going over to St Johns for a few days in the USVI. However a typically surly US immigration official soon out paid to that as we didn’t have a full US visa and the UK waiver scheme doesn’t apply to British private boats
Nevertheless the brilliant fun and the experience of just Andy and me sailing a feck off big cat all by ourselves gave us so much confidence we'renow confident that moving into the chartering business is the next step for us!
Read More...so we flew back to the BVI where we'd chartered a 40 foot catamaran ‘Puddle Duck’ for a weeks sailing. We were really excited as it was the first time we'd actually skippered by ourselves for so long. The whole week our motto was 'what could possibly go wrong?' which is quite ironic seeing as it's still hurricane season! Luckily we had excellent weather as hurricane Ike had passed over while we were in PR and the worst thing that happened all week was losing a towel that we had forgotten to peg properly to the railings.
The catamaran was a modern Robertson & Caine and capable of sleeping 10 so we had plenty of space to rattle around in, in fact Andy & I think it was probably bigger than our little cottage on Virgin Gorda! As September is the quietest month of the low season most of the restaurants were closed so our first stop was provisioning at the local supermarket and liquor store – guess which cost more?
After a very brief boat briefing from the Moorings base (they seemed to think that as we drive a dive boat every day we would know all about a sailing yacht) we set sail for our first destination of Cooper Island just in time for sundowners and dinner in the very laid back beach club.
Next stop was Virgin Gorda to pick up basic store cupboard items from our house and to show Richie who’s never been here before where we lived and around the island. After a whistle stop tour and obligatory photo stops on the pass, we headed back to the boat and onto our next mooring at the Dog Islands. Now normally yachts are only allowed to moor in the daytime here and certainly not overnight on a commercial dive operator ball, so guess what we did? It was one of the most secluded anchorages we had all week and after a very drunken dinner we soon found out the that rocky cliffs of the bay also provided fantastic acoustics for our stereo and the trampoline a fantastic danceloor. Needless to say it was a good job we were the only boat there!
Next morning after an early dive at the Chimney and as the day trippers started mooring alongside us we sheepishly unhooked and set off for Jost Van Dyke with a lunch stop at our old place of work Marina Cay.
The beauty of sailing in low season is that you can get away with using mooring balls for free and still be the only boat in the field. Diamond Cay on Jost Van Dyke was no exception to this so naturally we didn’t think anything of our solitude as we watched the dramatic moonrise over Sandy Spit. That was until the bugs started biting. Up until now we had been totally bug free but hadn’t realised how close we were to the mangroves and now the wind dropped completely. Lets just say it was the worst nights sleep we had all week and we set off fairly early the next day to try our hand at anchoring for the first time at Sandy Spit.
After an early morning dip we stopped at Little Harbour for lunch at one of our favourite beach bars, Sydney’s Peace & Love with it’s full scale honesty bar and Chinese laundry interior where drunk tourist leave their t-shirts hanging from the ceiling. Funnily enough our friend Colin’s T-shirt was still there from earlier in the year, if not a bit faded.
White Bay and the infamous Soggy Dollar Bar was the next on our itinerary and after an afternoon of drinking Painkillers and laughing at all the sunburnt tourists on day trips from St Thomas we collapsed back onto our trusty Puddle Duck to pass out for the rest of the evening.
Day 5 saw us running low on provisions so we headed into the pretty harbour of Soper’s Hole at the West End of Tortola, where Sheena almost rugby tackled another shopper for the last lettuce left on the shelf! Feeling that this deserved a celebratory drink we settled into the Pusser’s Bar and were enjoying the freedom of it all when Andy noticed the TV in the background showing HBOS, the bank we used to work for when we had ‘responsible’ jobs back in the UK. To our amazement and dismay it seemed that HBOS was the latest bank to fall foul of the current economic crisis and was announcing impending bankruptcy. Not only were we worried for our friends and colleagues back home, but what about our pensions and shares!! Oh well, nothing for it but to have another drink
After an afternoon snorkel at the Indians we headed into Pirates Bight on Norman Island, once famous as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ and now more infamous for the floating bar ‘The William Thornton’.
Sheena was already familiar with ‘Willy T’s’ from her hen day last year, but as Richie had never made the leap off the top deck we decided it had to be done again. The bar staff used to give away T Shirts for anyone daring or drunk enough to jump naked and ever since then it has gained a rather dodgy reputation, but even we were shocked to witness a rather ample local girl completely undress and allow the bar tender to have a tequila shot with a big difference! A couple of elderly retired pilots who we had been chatting to nearly had heart attacks just watching. As we intended to dive the Wreck of the R.M.S. Rhone the next day we used that as an excuse for a sharp exit!
The wreck of the Royal Mail Steamship the Rhone is the jewel in the diving crown of the BVI, so we had to take Sheena and Richie for one last dive there. After 140 years underwater she is still very much intact and covered in corals which attract large and small marine life. After a very nice dive we headed back to Peter Island for our last night before dropping our Sheena and Richie back at the airport.
Reluctant for our sailing adventure to end, after we dropped Sheena and Richie off at the airport Andy & I extended the lease on the boat for a few more days, just as the weather turned really windy. We circumnavigated Tortola again with the hope of going over to St Johns for a few days in the USVI. However a typically surly US immigration official soon out paid to that as we didn’t have a full US visa and the UK waiver scheme doesn’t apply to British private boats
Nevertheless the brilliant fun and the experience of just Andy and me sailing a feck off big cat all by ourselves gave us so much confidence we'renow confident that moving into the chartering business is the next step for us!
