can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Andromeda of Plymouth - The countdown contiues



We have missions to follow, and, yes, the world is a little more orange!

So with the auto-pilot installed and the alternator fixed, we planned to
head off to the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands before
heading north once more. We had eventually set off from Trinidad with
the idea that we would spend at least a month in the Virgin Islands, 4
weeks cruising then at least a week in Tortola before leaving for
Bermuda, in the meantime we had spent 3 weeks in St. Martin....... .

On a final raid on the chandlers we saw two very nice orange chairs for
the cockpit that had just arrived in Budget Marine – they must have
known we’d be around.

The trip to the Virgin Islands began quite smoothly but before long the
sea was rolly again, we had the genoa out and the mizzen up and were
making steady progress. It was a much busier night too, there were
vessels passing us in all directions, it felt a bit like Piccadilly
Circus. During the night a bird (we think it was a booby) attempted to
land on the boom several times. It came and went and came and went
several times and then things quietened down. That it was a bird we were
quite sure about but the colour was difficult to determine. Anyway on we
sailed and thought no more about it. Then, just off Virgin Gorda (at
dawn) our passenger decided to leave us – it had been roosting on the
boom, but we could not see it. The cheek of it – all the way from St.
Maarten to the Virgin Islands and not a word of thanks nor payment for
the passage – just a bit of poo on the deck! Outrageous! We shall be
writing to our MP.

Clearing into the US Virgin Islands at Cruz bay on St. John we looked at
the weather to decide an itinerary, and after a couple of nights on a
mooring buoy in Caneel Bay we headed down to Charlotte Amalie in St.
Thomas, the capital of the US Virgin Islands. We had a lovely sail
downwind and arrived into the very spacious bay with lots of room
between the anchored boats. After a couple of days exploring and boat
and harbour watching we fuelled up at Crown Bay Marina and went up to
Christmas Cove for a couple of nights, enjoying the small and uncrowded
bay before heading back to Cruz bay. We took a buoy further along Caneel
Bay this time and thinking we had to clear out of the US islands we
decided we would make a day out of it and caught a ferry across to Red
Hook to spend another enjoyable day ashore before going back to the
Customs and Immigration office who said we didn’t actually need to clear
out of the islands to go into the BVIs. Not something we had heard
before but were quite pleased about as there were some other places we
wanted to visit along St. John’s coast.

We ended up in Watermelon Bay for a couple of nights, enjoying the
snorkelling and swimming and then left to head for the BVI’s. Our
original plan was to head to Soper’s Hole but a wind shift decided for
us and instead we motored up to St. Thomas Bay on Virgin Gorda to clear
in to the islands. After an overnight stop we then made our way round to
the Bitter End to meet up with some friends.

The Bitter End is a very popular anchorage with many moorings and for
the first day we were there was completely full, then with it being near
the weekend and change-over day it emptied out quite nicely. We had
sundowners on Saba Rock with our friends Marilyn and Martin from Rocking
Horse on both evenings and it was great to catch up and get the recipe
for the Andromeda cocktail. We had a long walk round the bay to explore
Birras Creek and take refreshment at the Fat Virgin Cafe, before heading
over to Saba Rock and those sundowners again.

Leverick Bay was our next stop and a great place it is too, somewhere
you can do your own laundry in very pleasant surroundings. Leverick is
a very pretty place with its own red telephone box (minus door and
phone) on the main dock though the current was running through the
anchorage quite stongly so no snorkelling or swimming done there.

The trip to Trellis Bay took a couple of hours and into a much more
crowded mooring field, going ashore was a real treat though with all the
craft workshops, there were many lovely things to tempt people with a
house, probably a good job that we don’t have one.

Our time in the Caribbean is drawing to a close now and we had two more
stops to make, first of all a lovely sail across to Cooper Island for a
couple of nights in this little anchorage, swimming and snorkelling and
enjoying the shore-side shops where for the first time we were tempted
into buying a piece of art.

And so now we are in Great Bay, Peter Island and as it happens have been
enjoying the best snorkelling we have had anywhere so far in the
Caribbean. Yesterday we thought things couldn’t get any better after the
lovely sight of so many fish on the coral including an enormous shoal of
small fish, there must have been several millions of them, swimming over
the reef and around us but this morning after we moved to another
mooring we went out again and were treated to the sight of a hawksbill
turtle swimming blow us, sedately grazing as he went.

We are now ready to head for Nanny Cay in the morning and get ready for
the hustle and bustle of the next week before the departure on 3rd May.
Many jobs have been done well in advance but there is so much you cannot
do until just before the off so we are going to enjoy our last evening
on a buoy.

More in due course
Andrew and Susan, Andromeda of Plymouth


Previous | Next