Roaming the BVIs

Since we are returning to Django next week, after five cool wet summer months back in Quebec, it seems an opportune moment to recap the last two weeks of sailing we had in May. This is in keeping with my trend of never being caught up.

Once we'd returned to Django from the Soggy Dollar in a crestfallen Boffo, we upped anchor and headed across to Tortola. We docked at the Village Cay Yacht Club and headed into the town for provisions. We were escorted back by a young woman pushing a shopping cart full of our provisions. She was extremely pleasant (she liked my dress) and chatty. The YC cat seemed very pleased we had returned. It had very poor manners, since it would go aboard any boat at all without invitation.

Further explorations revealed a shop specialising in British stuff that sold Twiglets!! For those unaware, this is my absolute bottom-line favourite junk food. I bought all he had...six packets. WW tried the prawn crisps. They were not his favourite.

A major boat show was to take place soon, so the YC was full of extremely glam yachts. We checked out one futuristic and very luxurious catamaran. WW was interested in the mast which was stepped at quite an angle to the deck. There's a word for that, but I've forgotten it.

The next morning, I went into the pantry (that berth full of cabbages and such) and found a package of seaweed that had been torn open, although none had been eaten. We wondered if we had rats. That, however, didn't make sense, since all sorts of delicious dried grains and pulses were untouched. As I pondered this mystery, I looked up through the hatch above my head. There, the YC cat was giving me a disappointed look. Aha! Seaweed smells like fish!

Because of the upcoming boat show, the YC had made it clear we were allowed our space for one night only and that we had to be gone by noon. We cleared the harbour at about 11 and set off for Virgin Gorda.

It was a lovely sail, cruising by islets with names like Round Rock (which was...well...round) and my favourite group: Broken Jerusalem and Fallen Jerusalem.

Right to left: Round Rock, Broken Jerusalem (barely visible rocks),
Fallen Jerusalem, and VG

After negotiating a long, narrow, well-marked channel with the nefarious Mosquito Rock at its entrance we arrived at the Bitter End YC. We had our rum punch ashore, then a dinner of Puerto Rican fish cakes and a salad on Django before turning in. Tomorrow we would leave for the crossing to Grenada.