Fri May 20:
Vacation!! Promises of 10 days sailing helps make getting up at 2:30 am a bit easier. We’re leaving the house 45 minutes later for early flight out of Logan. Easy flights, early arrival and we’re to the boat mid-afternoon. A 38’ Island Packet named Paradiso. Only downer – it is pouring in St Thomas! The day before I told Bob to not worry about rain jackets as it never rains for more than 20 minutes, oops. We unpack and venture to the local grocery store to provision. Luckily it’s only a block away, and having done this before we know the routine. We get the food and drinks (and rum bottles!) safely stowed and figure dinner & drinks are in order. With several restaurants in the area we end up at a small outdoor bar (with a roof) and enjoy conversation with the bar tender who turns out to be from VT.
Sat May 21:
The rain has let up, but still off and on this morning. We’re doing some last minute shopping – cheapo rain ponchos and supplies for Bob to jury-rig the 12 volt outlook which it turns out has been wired ‘backwards’. We have the boat checkout with Kevin, and are underway before 11. And the rain has now stopped?
Paradiso is a 2009 model, and has a different ‘self-tending’ jib which makes for easier sailing, although not as fine-tuned. We have fairly good wind and are getting the feel for the boat. Our usual stop on first day is nearby Durloe Cay, just outside the main harbor on St John. We’re able to get one of the 2 moorings and make a quick lunch before jumping in to snorkel. While the water doesn’t seem real clear, probably due to the heavy rain from last few days, we did see a small school of squid – seemingly appropriate as our last trip to this spot we saw our largest school of squid ever, approximately 22.
Motoring up the coast of St John, we’re checking out the beaches along the way and arrive at Francis Bay. A 4’ barracuda greets us shortly after we moor, and proceeds to take up residence in the shadow below our boat. There is a beautiful beach here, and fairly flat road ashore. We’ve decided to go ashore for a pre-happy hour run. Rather hot, but we managed a casual 2 miler and were treated to seeing several deer (including 2 young fawns) and a mongoose. Breezy and lovely sunset for our first night on board. We’re the furthest boat out on the mooring field and feel like we have the bay pretty much to ourselves.
Sun May 22:
Early morning stroll ashore to check out a path around a salt pond, and up to some ruins which included an 1864 grave of Hesther Francis (guessing Bay was named for her). More deer, humming birds and interesting final ruin with some beautiful floor tile remnants. Back to the boat we’ll take a 5 minute motor to one of our favorite spots – Whistling Cay. This rugged Cay has beautiful rock formations and various trees hanging on rather precariously in some spots. I always love it here for the above water, and for the snorkeling. We’re not disappointed – and some of the trees (possibly frangipani’s) are blossoming. Below water on the outer area of the cay are some great formations – various walls and ledges. One spot in particular has amazing colors with a variety of tunicates and other soft small corals. Luckily it’s easy to find and I usually spend several minutes diving along the wall.
Our next destination is Waterlemon Cay. Just around the ‘corner’ although we’re able to do a bit of sailing/tacking to get to the bay. This is another of our favorite spots – beautiful shoreline, great small cay with excellent snorkeling, and lovely ocean views over to Jost Van Dyke. We grab a mooring, see some dark clouds, and proceed to enjoy a torrential downpour…with the sun back out 20 minutes later. Bob was able to entertain himself during the rain by trying to figure out why our bilge pump came on and wouldn’t shut off. We flushed it a few times with water and figure we’ll monitor closely and manually. Evidently something caught in the float although very difficult to pull the float apart. It’s always something with boats!
We swim to the cay to begin our snorkeling excursion. On the far side of the cay we typically cross the short distance to the shore of the island, which leads to a nice point at the edge of the outer channel. The area is marked by buoys and no boats are allowed. As it’s very sandy, this central area frequently has turtles and sting rays. We’re not disappointed as we see the largest turtle we’ve seen down here along with what looks to be a 3’ greenish remora. A sting ray or two as well. And then… an eagle ray! These are a treat to see diving, let alone snorkeling. They’re beautiful to see and amazing to watch swimming. We’re able to follow him around a bit as he’s circling the area checking out the sand for some food. We are amazed and feel (only slightly) bad for the other snorkelers nearer the cay who are oblivious to what we’ve just witnessed.
Late afternoon we venture ashore to hike to two ruins on the local Johnny Horn path. The first one only a few minutes from the beach, is at a lovely spot overlooking our cay and boat mooring area. Another 20 minutes or so up the trail is the cut off for the higher ruins. We’re impressed at the amount of trail work that has been done here, the first time we looked for this trail a few years ago it was almost a bushwack. The foundations and steps of what must have been a lovely home is all that remains. But at this higher location we can not only Whistling Cay anchorage, but more of the east side of St John as well as many of the BV islands. The trail committee has cleared away some of the brush near the ruins and it’s much more open. We’re happy to see that the pretty pink flowers resembling bleeding hearts still are growing throughout the area. (later update, at home Bob is viewing web pages for 4-season hiking meetup group and finds photos for St John - these hikers from New England actually worked this trail!)
Back to the boat, probably slightly late for the usual 5pm rum/snacks happy hour – but what an amazing day.
Mon May 23:
We’re on island time and sleeping a bit late. 9am we’re motoring over to Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI. Very light wind, which was to be the case many of our days. Easy clear in to customs with $72 fee for sailing/island hopping 4 days on British territory. We figure an early lunch at the famed Foxy’s is in order. We’re in for a treat as Foxy himself (mid 70’s?) is onsite playing a bit of guitar & signing for the lunch crowd. We met an Australian couple at the table next to us – they had purchased a boat in Maryland and were in process of sailing it home. Learning a lot along the way, but seemingly very happy.
Back to the boat for a leisurely motor to anchor at Sandy Spit off the eastern end of Little Jost van Dyke. This small sandy island can be strolled in approx 5 minutes and has only a handful of palm trees. Met a couple from WY and chatted away while we enjoyed the warm water. We had planned to have dinner at Foxy’s second restaurant, Taboo – however the activity in the small bay nearby seemed pretty heavy so we decided to stay put and dine of the boat. Mixed our first happy hour drink and then decided to dinghy along Little Jost towards the bay. Beautiful shoreline and in the harbor we waved a quick hello to our WY friends who had ventured there for their dinner. Back to our boat, mix another rum punch and we dinghy’d the short distance to the 'spit', to stroll, take photos and watch the sunset. Yup, life is rough. There are 4 or so other boats here for the night – rather quiet and we have a lovely view of the lights from Tortolla.
Tues May 24:
We’re underway at lazily-respectable time of 8:45 for a 3 hour motor sail along the north coast of Tortola to Guana Island and Monkey Point, another of our usual stops. Great lunch spot / snorkeling, and the coastline enroute is quite lovely. We’re not the only ones with same thought so we end up anchoring near the end of the mooring field off Monkey Point. It’s a long swim to the snorkeling area, but we figure we can use a bit of exercise. I found a bristle worm and a few of our usual fish – nothing overly spectacular and I think that the recent rains are still affecting a bit of the visibility. But we’re happy for the break.
And now off to The Dogs – a group of three small uninhabited islands mid-channel between Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The Dogs are quite popular for their seclusion and great snorkeling. However most boaters will depart late afternoon making for rather private and quite night anchorage. Great Dog moorings were taken, we motored to George Dog and temporarily grab the single dive mooring. Another hour or so and the other 2 boats left – we slid up and anchored in one of their spots, feeling pretty smug that we’d now have the entire place to ourselves! Off to snorkel and not disappointed – counted a school of 23 squid, lots of juvenile fish along the shoreline, turtle (twice) orange filefish, juvenile trunk fish, our first Spanish Hog fish. What a treat? Celebrated with a nice enough rum drink that someone forgot to put rum into the second drink! We dinghy’d to shore with our corrected second drink to watch the sunset and grab a few photos. Post dinner (steak, rice, salad, pudding) we discovered some water ‘fire-fly bugs’ something giving off sporadic light scattered throughout the water. Starry night and we felt our trip to The Dogs certainly exceeded our expectations yet again.
Wed May 25:
The weather looked a bit iffy early in the morning, so Geri – feeling energetic –took an early snorkel to beat any potential sprinkles. It didn’t take much to convince Bob to jump in post-breakfast and we were treated to quite a show – a huge school of approximately 50 squid! They looked to be fairly young / small – but never have we seen so many. Also came across 2 puffers, oh so cute with their puppy-dog eyes.
The skies started spitting a bit of rain and things were looking a bit foggy. We left 10am and motored to Fat Hogs Bay on SE side of Tortola. We purposely were skipping Virgin Gorda on this trip to make more time in other areas, and that is where we’d typically re-provision. While we hadn’t been to Fat Hogs Bay, it was conveniently located and the guidebook sounded like it would have what we needed. Less than a 2-hour motor sail and the skies were starting to clear.
Grabbed a mooring and went ashore. A Mexican restaurant caught our attention and we were the first customers of the day. The owner advised us that soon there would be a bevy of school children – evidently 3 of the local restaurants provide hot lunch for the local school. We’re comfortable enough, slight breeze, beer and wifi (for one of us) so no problem. Sure enough a few minutes later we see the kids running down the street. Probably a dozen or so stopped at the Mexican restaurant and grab seats around us. We had 3 sitting near by, 2 girls and a younger boy. One of the girls finally says ‘HE’ wants to know where you are from. So we proceeded to talk with them off and on during their lunch – very cute.
Cross the street to Rite Way Food Market for supplies – very nice store, good prices – actually like this better than the store where we begin our trip. Will remember this for next year for sure. Talked briefly with the local dive shop before heading back to boat. We contemplated taking a dive the next day – see how my ears would do – but timing will not work. We enjoyed chatting with the dive master and an American woman that was anchoring in FH Bay. But time to get to boat and underway for Cooper Island our destination for the night.
We picked a mooring on the outer edge of Manchioneel Bay, near Cooper Island Beach Club. We’ve gone from the seclusion of Great Dog, to probably the largest/busiest mooring area we’ll be in for these 10 days. Ashore is nothing more than the beach club, but this is a well-protected bay and popular spot. The sea is like glass – so very calm. Went ashore to make dinner reservations, grabbed a soda at the bar and checked out the small resort including the dive shop and gift shop. We again inquired about a dive for the next day – again, it was not meant to be. Evidently scheduling dives is indeed something many do in advance. We’re not overly upset by any means.
Enough time to snorkel. Cistern Point near the south end of the mooring area is actually a large rock formation sticking out of the water. There is a dinghy mooring line available as this is popular for snorkeling. We looped clockwise and saw tons of fish – turtle, scrawled file fish, and many juvenile yellow tailed damsels. Back to the boat for happy hour (of course!) then dressed up for 7:45pm dinner. Great food, mahi mahi & yellow fin tuna were our selections, with Key Lime Pie for one of us. We strolled a bit and sat on the cushioned lounge chairs after dinner. Felt we liked the food / mooring here better than Saba Rock /Virgin Gorda which had traditionally had been our big night out.
Thurs May 26:
Warm morning so we’ll take a quick dip to cool off. And what is looking up at us?? Another 4’baracuda! Bob is sure they are after him. He proceeded to hold himself at 45degree angle and we could nicely see all his teeth as he eyed us from a foot below the water. We’re not aware of any barracuda attack stories, however it was a bit unsettling so we decided to see if we could get next door to Salt Island without him following us. Un-inhabited Salt is the next island over, a short motor ride and we anchored off shore. Luckily, no barracuda in this bay.
Geri drove the dinghy ashore where we were greeted by Rocky the Rooster – or so we called him. He stuck with us as we pulled the dinghy ashore, put on tevas and started exploring. We were guessing he was pretty lonely. While there are a few buildings on this island, it is no longer inhabited, at least no on any permanent basis. There are 3 salt ponds (go figure). Salt Island was once an important source of sale for the ships from England. The land is rather rugged – a combination of steep rocky sections and low, flat arid areas by the ponds. There are 2 grave yards – when the Rhone sank in 1869, many of the bodies washed ashore on Salt. The Rhone lies off the western side of the island and is probably the most popular dive site in the BVI. We walked along the shore far enough to get a view of the cluster of dive boats.
Peter Island will be our next stop. Another short motor as this is the next island in the chain. We anchored in the northeast corner in Deadman’s Cove. A large resort is ashore on the far end of the bay and we can see the lovely beach as well as many of the guests sailing or windsurfing. We dinghy to the point on the outer edge of the cove for a snorkel. Nothing too much to report, but we enjoy the lovely day & beach.
Timing and weather is great so we’ll head to the Indians next, a series of rock formations rising above the water. Several moorings are available for snorkeling and some diving. We’re lucky enough to grab a mooring and the calm water enables us to explore all sides of the Indians. On our last trip here, wind-waves made it quite uncomfortable so we are very pleased with these conditions and snorkel a good 90 minutes. See a black durgin or two – another of our ‘favorite’ fish but they are not too common in the BVI’s.
Late afternoon approaching and we’ll locate a mooring on Norman Island for the night. While there is a large popular bay with 2 restaurants, we usually prefer to stay on the outer edge of the island in one of the two smaller northeastern bays. We’ve also found some very good snorkeling here in the past. We cruised through Benures Bay, but felt it was too warm when close enough for anchoring. So we’ll grab a mooring in Soldiers Bay instead. We’re in the western end of the 5 moorings, and do a bit of snorkeling but are actually disappointed feeling like we’re not in the right spot and/or there's been a change in the bay.
It still is a lovely shoreline, and we’re comfortable for our dinner on board and sleeping. We’re serenaded by some lovely songbirds at sunset and peepers galore. From our dry anchorage, we watch an amazing lightening show north of us for a good 2 hours or so – we later find it is on St Thomas. Moorings have gone up to $30, and tonight we do not get the usual visit from the provision boat from Norman that typically makes rounds to sell snacks, ice, take garbage etc. Chicken, potatoes, salad… it’s what’s for dinner.
Fri May 27th:
Today we’ll be leaving the BVI and heading back to St John and USVI. But decided to start the day with a snorkel the opposite direction from the previous afternoon, so closer to the western shore on the ‘bight’ side. Hoping that we see some more activity in a section we have not snorkeled previously. AMAZING! Saw a turtle, queen trigger, cowfish, scrawled file, trunk fish, and a ton of other stuff. We’re sold again on this spot as a snorkel site and will make a point to go to the western side on our next trip.
9am and we’re heading to St John. We traveled up the eastern side of the island as we head to Cruz Bay to check into customs. Shortly before Caneel Bay we spotted our only glimpse of a dolphin. Shortly after 11, we've moored, cooled off and are heading into customs. Somehow we manage to get back to the boat shortly after 1pm after clearing in, grabbing a burger for lunch, re-provisioning, and hitting the bakery for breakfast treat and an ice cream cone! Decided customs just before lunch was good --they didn’t even ask about trash. (Other note remember to put Jost as prior port)
Time to get out of the 'city' and we cruise the western side of island towards the southern shores - less populated both on land and water. Short (hot) stop at Reef Bay to see the Sugar Mill Ruins. Felt the water in the bay was as warm as the air. Enjoyed the ruins and saw the many bats we remembered from prior visit - including a few flying around during the daylight hours.
Next to Little Lamshere Bay to grab a mooring. Rolling anchorage with a south wind, but will rock us to sleep tonight. Went snorkeling near the eastern point and were greeted by 5 squid, then a whole ton of fish and coral/sponges. Even saw 2 cowfish together - juvenile and adult French Angel, a Queen Angel, Queen Trigger. The ultimate highlight was watching an octopus and seeing him swimming! Rare to see one period, especially during the day, let alone swimming.
Went ashore for a short stroll to the land-based mooring pay station and checked out the geological station where they had quite a few cow fish in a tank - evidently doing some type of research. Returned and walked the other direction up the beach towards a nice ruin and grounds that overlook our small bay. Saw several mongoose and enjoyed the flowers near the ruins. Back to boat for happy hour - saw 2 deer along the shoreline, relaxed and watched a turtle surfacing near the back of the boat. Leftover chix, pasta for dinner and saw more of our 'firefly' bugs in the water again.
Sat May 28:
Breakfast, trash ashore, and move to Beehive Cove by Cabritte Pointe. In 1969, an underwater project took place here where four people lived for 58 days. The Tektite Program structure was built by GE and placed 50 feet below sea level. There may be some concrete foundations remaining, but we really did not see any evidence of the structure. 2 dive moorings are here and we grab one for snorkeling. This was a deeper area - we headed into the bay first and were not overly impressed. Went back toward the boat and continued to the outer shoreline. Things were a bit more interesting, still deeper but we had good views of many coral/rock formations and the channels between them. Saw 3 scrawled file fish together (a family?) , one 5-6 foot nurse shark trying to sleep below the rocks, a 3-foot grouper, school of 50+ needle nose near the surface. Much better snorkeling this direction with lots of fish life nearer the outer point.
Time to continue our leisurely trip along the southern side of the island - I love some of the homes and properties you see along this coastline. We're heading to Coral Bay for lunch. We've walked/hiked here from the northern side, but have never arrived via boat. We anchor on the western side of the channel and have a new experience. We test that the anchor is holding and determine it is not. Pulling the anchor back in I see that we have pulled up a fairly large coiled line! I’m unable to remove the heavy line from my position on the bow, so I jump into the water to work on it up close and personal. With the anchor hanging just below the surface and the water taking the weight of the line, it’s now an easy process to get the coils off the anchor. We pull further ahead and our second anchoring attempt is much more successful.
Lunch at Skinny Legs - and a bit of shopping for t-shirts, hats and ice. Back to the boat and we're ready to backtrack a short distance and check out snorkeling off Cobblestone Beach. We had read about this in our St John book and felt prudent to investigate. Saw a turtle, but not much else, we weren't as impressed as other areas. We hoped to get a mooring in Salt Pond for the night - this would be another 'new' spot for us. While the chart showed 8 moorings, we only counted 5 as we scoped the area and sadly all were taken. Oh well, we'll back track some more and hit Great Lameshure Bay for the night. Rewarded with a nice breeze and only 4 other boats in this much larger area. Still rolly, but not as much as the night before in Little Lameshure. Three of the research folks are out putting down traps on the eastern side of the bay. Happy Hour of course, and chix, rice, corn for dinner. It's Sat night and we hear some music/singing/partying from somewhere on shore - hard to figure where as there are not too many homes or buildings near here. It's warm and not much breeze, so G spent some of the night sleeping on the deck. Interesting saw the research team quietly making late-night rounds of their traps.
Sun May 29:
Early start with breakfast at 7, and quick dinghy ashore with trash. We see a student at the geological station and learn they have been catching trunkfish to study a new parasite they have found. We certainly hope it won't be a serious situation. She is from U of Maine Farmington - here for several weeks studying the complexity of coral reefs. Could be worse places to study:)
Our goal to leaving early was to see if we could grab the single mooring out at Booby Rock to snorkel. This is further from shore, and near the Salt Pond & Cobblestone Beach area from yesterday. We want to beat the other boats that may have same idea. We're in luck, and what a great spot! Small bit of rock - lots of birds. This turns out to be the healthiest reef we've seen. Tons of types of corals, sponges. Hundreds of the small jelly fish - I'm finally getting comfortable as these are NOT the stinging type. We spot a Queen Trigger and see she is pulling a black sea urchin by one of his needles, dropping it from rock onto the sand, then blowing under it to 'flip if over' where she can now eat it from the bottom side! Our own little national geographic episode. We loop the island and as we return to this spot all we see are a pile of needles left from the large urchin.
Back to the boat, snack and determine what to do next. Hmmm, snorkeling so great here let's take another dip! Saw a turtle, yellow trumpets, starfish, brittle stars... what a wonderful spot. Glad we were able to do this on such a calm day as well - we'll certainly plan to come back here on future trips and hope we get lucky with the single mooring.
Onward ho, we're now approaching the eastern side of the island and around 1pm we start seeing the first of a few hundred power boats racing in some event. We think they are part of Foxy’s Memorial Day Regatta, and racing from Jost to Norman Island. The boats range from screaming loud cigarette boats, to much smaller boats, so we think they must be racing in various classes. This is certainly very NON sail-like, however pretty cool to see. We are sticking closer to shoreline as we round the eastern side and the boats are coming down the channel towards us. At one point two pass us at same time, one on either side of us. Everyone is having fun - some have music blaring, most are waving.
Soon enough we've arrived at Waterlemon Cay again. Time to chill with a beer, read, nap and then snorkel. Enjoyed watching a Cat try to grab a mooring with their sail up (not a good idea). They had to 'back up' and proceeded to wedge their dinghy between their pontoons and below the trampoline. Bob is keeping an eye on them as we are hoping their mooring choice will be anywhere but next to ours. Nice snorkel, sadly no eagle ray. But we saw a turtle, several sting rays, and our first permit of the trip. Light current coming back from the far side so we timed that pretty well. Happy hour - casual dinner of hot dogs, beans and beets.
Sunday night of Memorial Weekend, and all but 2 moorings are taken by nightfall. Many locals here tonight and two rather 'loud' boats nearer the shore are enjoying their music and dancing. The next morning they are not to be seen on deck until quite late.
Mon May 30:
Went ashore and walked to the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruins – an amazingly beautiful spot up on a small hill overlooking the bay. Never get tired of visiting this area. It’s a perfect blend of interesting ruins, lovely trees/plants, and great views of the bay below. We venture a bit further to the Annaberg School ruins to get a bit of exercise. Strolling back we talk with 2 locals walking their dogs. They are both real estate agents, and tell us that the low price homes are doing fairly well... these are the 1-3 million range! gulp.
One last snorkel around the cay - turtle, a barracuda about 1 foot from Bob's mask, french and queen angels. We're planning to spend the night around the corner at Whistling Cay - but figure we should try to sail as there is some wind. We sail around Thatchers and are treated in the distance to a very large 3 masted schooner. The wind 'mostly' keeps up and we continue almost to Jost, just enjoying the water and views. A very relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. Oh, to have another 10 days....
Quick stop at Whistling for a short snorkel. Interesting time watching tons of minnows - and the rainbow runners and birds feeding on them! Quite a bit of activity. Also think it was low tide (not that it moves much) but more of the rocks were above water. Saw 3 large tarpins and a turtle. We decide to stay the night closer to shore in Francis Bay, and sadly need to start packing. As sun is starting to go done, we see a lovely schooner coming around Whistling Cay and into Francis. Bob's able to take a few photos. As it gets closer we realize it is being sailed solo - one person is taking down the many sails and casually getting to the mooring. Pretty impressive to say the least. Happy hour and dinner, and the joy of packing.
Tues May 31:
Quick 5 minn motor to Whistling for a final snorkel here. Jumped in and were greeting by yet another 4 foot barracuda, and just as it disappeared we spotted a 5' nurse shark swimming in the distance. Lots of fish, good visibility. Hit the usual wall with tunicates and saw a turtle as we headed back toward the boat. Time to say goodbye to Whistling Cay - we'll motor to Durloe Cay for one final stop before returning the boat on St Thomas. The water at Durloe now seems clearer than on our first stop here 10 days ago – we see good vegetation and numerous spotted hawk fish. I keep diving, not willing to make the 'last' dive. But somehow responsibility sets in and we gather up the last loose ends to tidy the boat and head the short distance to St. Thomas.
We're not getting an answer from the yacht company on the radio (another chance to not turn in the boat!) but as we approach the dock we see another of the Island Packet rentals fueling up and know that the crew is available. We take our turn at the fuel dock and then a crew member jumps on board to take Paradiso into the slip. Time to unpack, take a last shower. It turns out that the couple turning in the boat before us were on our same schedule last year and we remember them as having sailed to the Spanish Virgin Islands. We planned to grab lunch at one of the local spots, but we end up talking to Skip and Andrea (Yacht company owners) for some time instead. Finally off to the airport (90 minute delay there!) and we're heading home. We miraculously made our Charlotte connection with seconds to spare, thankfully the departure gate was immediately across from our arriving gate.
