fetchinketch

After leaving the busy harbor of Gorda Sound, we sailed around the northern end of Virgin Gorda to completely different world.  The windward side of Virgin Gorda has only one viable harbor, and the entrance is a challenging one with shallow reefs on either side and another in the middle of the unmarked entrance channel.  All of the charter companies red-line this harbor as off limits to their boats.  After sailing about 12 miles, we ended up just a mile or so from where we were anchored in Gorda Sound as the crow files, but on the other side of the island it was a world apart. Here are pictures of the anchorage:

Anybody who has been to the BVI on a charter boat will not believe that such an anchorage exists here, with NO other boats, no bars, no resorts…

Beautiful, calm, protected, quiet.  It is everything you could imagine the ideal tropical harbor might be. But, as they might say on the cheesy infomercial, “But wait, there is more!”

We were lucky enough to be here on the right night, just the right number of days after the full moon.  Shortly after dark, Karen was the first to notice the lights in the water.  Now, we have seen lots of phosphorescent plankton.  Generally they are impressive only when it is REALLY dark. Moon light  can totally overwhelm them.  But this was different.  Hundreds of bright points of light would appear in waves across the bay.  Brighter by far than stars, I’d compare them to the brightness of terrestrial fireflies.  Toward the end of the display, I was even able to capture them on camera.  Not in the numbers that were present earlier, but still enough to give you a good idea.

They were breeding polychaete worms.  About an inch long.  The light is used to attract a mate and synchronize the release of gametes into the water column.  It was just amazing to watch the dark bay light up first in isolated spots, then more and more over the course of a minute or so to a peak, and then fade to back black.  The process would repeat every few minutes. A beautiful display, we had all to ourselves.

For anybody interested, the picture of the worms was taken with my new Nikon D500 set at ISO 32,000.  Exposure of 1 second at f2.8.  Pretty amazing. I would have had even better pictures, but I didn’t think it was possible, and did not try until it was almost too late!  I balanced the lighting in the picture so that it looks as much like the scene would look to your eyes as possible.  The light in the sky from behind the hill was from a town on the north shore of Virgin Gorda.  The two lights on the hill are on the large blue-roofed white house you can see on the daytime pictures above.

Anagada:
Lat: 18º 43.4N
Lon: 64º 23.4W

Virgin Gorda:
Lat: 18º 30.6N
Lon: 64º 23.3W

We spent the last two nights anchored off the island of Anagada in the British Virgin Islands.  Anagada is a sparsely populated island, only about 300 people live here.  Here is a view of the main road at the height of rush hour….

Once upon a time, in the dim dark ages of sailing, before every boat had a chart plotter, the local charter boats were not allowed to go to Anagada because the reefs were dangerous and the channel in to the anchorage was difficult. (NB:  Those “dark ages” were the last time I was here in the BVI!)  Now, the island has many more visitors, because at least some of the charter fleets allow there customers to visit. 

On entering the anchorage, you have a choice:  yellow morning ball or white.  It looks to be almost exactly evenly split between the two.  The yellow ones belong to the Anagada Reef Hotel, and the white ones to another local business.  $30/night. 

Our first night we had dinner at Potter’s. All of their business is from arriving boats.  They have a large dinghy dock, and no parking lot for cars. You have to place your order, either in person or by radio, by 6:00PM, and dinner is served at 8.  THE local speciality is lobster.  It is grilled over an open fire, and is smoky and delicious.  The decor is “customer decorated”.  It seems everybody who visits adds their own layer of graffiti to the walls.  Each restaurant along the beach has a large pen along side their dock where they store their lobster supply.  Some of them are HUGE.  The preferred bait in the traps is goat hide.

Dinner on the hoof…

The view from Potters Bar

Anagada is geographically quite distinct from the other islands in the area which are all high volcanic islands.  The highest point on Anagada is 23 feet above sea level.  It is surrounded by reefs which have claimed over 300 ships in the last couple hundred years.  At least one Spanish treasure galleon still hasn’t been found. Approaching Anagada we could see the turquoise color of the reef reflected on the bottom of the clouds long before we could see any trace of land. 

If you look VERY closely at this picture you can just pick out the land.  It is hard to see clearly in the photograph, but the undersides of the clouds over the shallow reefs (to the right in the picture) are a distinctly different color than those over deep water.

Our second day at Anagada, we sailed to the deeper water off the north side of the island to try to catch some pelagic fish.  We had no luck on the tuna or wahoo we were hoping for, but did well with Black Jack (a new fish to me, I had never even heard of it!) and Barracuda.

Tonight we are at the outskirts of one of the busy anchorages by Virgin Gorda, a “must stop” place for just about every charter boat working its way around the archipelago. Tomorrow we are going to the south side of Virgin Gorda, where the charter boats are not allowed to go, for a bit of piece and quiet.

The British Virgin Islands are a compact group of islands that made a conscious decision years ago to do everything they could to attract sailing based tourism.  In this they have spectacularly succeeded.  I do not know how many charter boats there are here, but the answer is “a lot!”

Most of the activity is in the “bareboat” charter fleet.  If you rent a “bareboat” you get the boat, without crew or supplies. You have to drive it yourself.  There is also a large market for “crewed” boats where you just show up with your luggage and the captain takes you where you want to go.

The islands appear to be among the most prosperous we have visited.  While we were waiting for our fishing licenses to be processed, we glanced through the local newspaper. There were multiple large display ads, looking for workers.  One was a full page ad  in the main news section of the paper to hire a butcher!  A half page ad from a local resort looking for a wide variety of skills from chef to chambermaid. If you are anything from a heavy equipment operator to a sailboat captain, somebody on this island needs your services. It seems there is no excuse for not working if you live here!  The official unemployment rate is in the neighborhood of 2.5%.

In addition to the standard check-in at customs and immigration, we also needed to stop by the Fisheries Office to get our temporary fishing permits, and then to the National Park Office to get a permit to use the moorings they place at the various diving locations around the islands.

Yes, it is this pretty…

For a couple of days we have pulled into a marina.  Our primary reason for coming here is to replace our 10 year old outboard engine.  We have wanted to replace our reliable, but aging, 8HP 2-stoke Yamaha with another 2-stroke engine because of their simplicity, lightweight, and robustness.  Unfortunately, 2-stroke engines are no longer available in the USA.  After reviewing options, we ended up getting a 15 HP 2-stroke Yamaha.  An engine that has been in production for more than a decade, and is probably the most common outboard engine in the world–so parts are everywhere.  The dealer is located here at this marina, and will be dropping off the shiny new engine tomorrow morning at our boat.

Other benefits to being in a marina:  big laundry machines, decadent showers, and easy loading of the boat with provisions.

Our plans here are to load up with supplies, and then head to the easternmost island in the BVI, Anagada about 20 miles away.  We’ll do some deep water fishing there, and explore the other islands as we make our way back toward Tortola in a week’s time to pick up Karen’s friends Bill & Cindy who will be staying with us for a week.  Then, our clock starts to run out.  By the beginning of June the tropical Atlantic Ocean begins to get warm enough that hurricanes start to become a significant risk, so it’s back north we go!

This morning we untied from our mooring in Caneel Bay off the island of St Johns in the US Virgin Islands, and sailed 13 miles to the city of Road Town on the island of Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.

It was a typical Virgin Island sail, in 15 knots of wind and quite flat water.  Karen kept commenting this wasn’t ocean sailing, there is land visible in every direction!  We short-tacked Harmonie through “The Narrows”.  OK, the Narrows are a mile wide, but on a 53 foot boat that FEELS like short-tacking!   We then made out way further upwind, moving east through the Sir Francis Drake Channel half way down the length of Tortola to Road Town, a Port of Entry into the BVIs.

Whenever you arrive in a new country, your first stop must be in a “Port of Entry” to clear customs and immigration.  Road Town  is one of two Ports of Entry on Tortola. The Customs office is at the ferry dock where the boats from the US Virgins land.

We were first directed to the immigration office, where we were given the three forms we needed.  An Immigration Card for each of us, (Charge:  US$0.10 each) and a Customs form for the boat (Charge:  US$1.00).  We filed them out, and handed the paperwork in to the immigration officer, who checked them for completeness, and then held our forms and passports while we were sent to Customs (on the other side of the room) to pay our fees.  US$6.13 later, and several official stamps later, we had all our paperwork back and were officially checked in to the country.

We have a couple other things to do here in Road Town.  Get a SIM card for a phone so we have data access around the islands, get a fishing license, and go to the grocery store. It is unlikely we will get all that done tomorrow (Things are closed on Sunday!) but Monday should have our chores finished here and we can head on to other scenic spots.

I taught sailing skills to adults for many years.  When it was time to learn traditional navigation skills with paper charts, sometimes I felt like I was teaching ninth graders trigonometry.  “Why do we have to learn this?”  “This is so old-fashioned, what’s wrong with using a GPS?” “Will this be on the test?”

Well, let me tell you a story…

Once upon a time there was a boat cruising in the Caribbean, just like our boat.  They had all the latest navigation tools, charts on the electronic screen, showing exactly where they were all the time.  Since the data was all electronic, it could be updated and kept current anytime they had an internet connection.  Life was good.  Just like on our boat.

Then some new electronic toys appeared onboard this boat.  Just like on our boat.  Those new electronic toys used the same kind of micro data card as the chart plotter used to store its charts. Just like on our boat.

The Captain of this cruising boat decided to update his chart data over the internet, as he should do on a regular basis.  He made the mistake of having more than one of these tiny little data cards out on the table at the same time.

Quick, which one is which????

Now when this Captain was done updating his charts, he took the other card and put it in the computer to import some photos.  Just like on our boat.  Then this (unnamed) Captain put a card into the camera, and pressed “Format”.  Ooops, wrong card. Chart data all gone.  Captain says naughty words. Just like on our boat…

Now the good news, on OUR boat we have a complete set of paper charts for the area we are cruising. We are not lost, we know what to do.  That other Captain?  He doesn’t have paper charts and even if he did he really doesn’t know how to work with them.  He is stuck.

We can download the complete chart data, but it is over a gigabyte of data, and our cellular data connection just won’t support that in one go.  So we have to find a real network connection in town to do our download.  In the meantime, it is back to navigating in primitive fashion.  Like people did in the dark ages–10 years ago.

So… to all my old students:  That’s why you have to learn how to work on paper charts!

Our video from Carnival is up!  Have a look!

If you like it, share it!

LAT:  18º 18.6′ N
LON:  064º 40.9’W

We are anchored in the lee of Great St James Island, just off the east end of St Thomas, about half way between St Thomas and St John.  It is a private island, so we haven’t had the chance to get ashore, but the water exploration has been fun.

We are now in a places with a much higher population of boats.  It is unlikely we will have an anchorage to ourselves for quite some time.  Under the boat, there have been lots of fish, and bottlenose dolphins.  The island itself is beautiful, not totally arid, but not bright green either.  Just full of interesting textures.  Oh, and there is pizza!  You’ll have to wait for our video to learn more about that surprise…

The small island in the middle of the anchorage is home to a colony of laughing gulls.  We have found it a bit unusual to see gulls this far away from town.  One of the interesting things we learned from one of our birding references, is that large seagulls were historically rather rare birds–until the existence of human garbage dumps where they could find unlimited food.  Our travels would confirm that.  It is quite unusual to see a gull away from a city or large town.

Another bird comment…  I always wondered why the common Blue Heron carried the name “Great Blue Heron”.  I figured that it was like the “Great White Shark”, just an extra adjective that added no value.  But, I was wrong.  It turns out there IS a “Little Blue Heron” I hadn’t heard of before…

A Little Blue Heron hunts along the shore line.

Target acquired!

Dirt? Who needs dirt? A crack in the rock is all we need! If you are a plant person who is interested in succulents, this is a fun place.

A Turks Head Cactus and an Aloe share a crack in the rock.

Baby dolphins!

We will be making the short hop over to St Johns later today.

He wears his chef’s costume well.

The kids really get into the dances.

The costumes and drums for the “Indian” dances were a lot of fun.

Everywhere you look you see sequins and sparkles.

Tis trombone player was doing sound checks on the stage while I was walking by. Have you ever seen a face with so much character? I imagine just sitting and listening to this guy’s stories for hours.

Age, or size, anybody can be a parage queen!

you can’t ahve a parade without baton twirlers. Can you?

Just looking cool!

Like Carnival anywhere, costums and makeup are bright and colorful.

The Atlantic “BrownPelican” is a bit of a different color morph than I am used to from the California coast.

Sometimes the crown is too heavy to wear.

What would a Carnival parade be without pretty girls in colorful costumes?

Regal all the way!

If you are from a smaller island, you get a bigger crown!

Job #1: Perfect that royal wave!

We are ready to move on from Charlotte Amalie to points further east in the Virgin Islands.  We got the repairs done we came for, and had a great time at the local Carnival celebration. It was much more fun than I expected!  The people are a delight, and we felt privileged to participate in an event that was obviously NOT oriented towards tourists, but to what the locals wanted.

It was a special event, because it was the 100th anniversary of “transfer”, when the USA bought the islands from Denmark.  In fact, today (Sunday) it feels oddly quiet.  No bands, no cruise ships.  Everybody on shore is recovering from four days of heavy partying, so it is really peaceful here in the harbor.

This is a beautiful little island in the Spanish Virgin Island group. The Spanish Virgins are a group of islands between Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands that are administratively part of Puerto Rico. Like in most parts of Puerto Rico we have visited people are as likely to address you in English as in Spanish—here maybe even more likely in English.

This island is one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries in the western hemisphere. I’d guess less than 15% of the island is developed in any way. It has a population of around 2000. It was also one of the islands used for many years by the US Navy as a live-fire bombing range. There are posters around town reminding you to not pick up anything unusual you might see on the ground.

Culebra is home to Flamingo Beach. Rated, by those people whose business it is to do such things, as one of the top three beaches in the world. So far in our time here on the island we have seen exactly one flamingo.

The towers of the lift bridge in downtown Dewy, Culebra, Puerto Rico.

The main (actually the only) town on the island is Dewy. Named after the presidential candidate who famously lost to Truman in 1948. The town was relocated by the US Navy to put it “closer to the water.” Actually, to get it out of the way of the bombs they wanted to drop. The local story is that there were two fishing boats on the island who needed access to the ocean, so the Navy built a lift bridge over the canal so they would not have to take the long way round. The bridge hasn’t worked for years.

The town is well and truly on “Island Time.” Just up from the dinghy dock, there is a small grocery store that seemed to be closed more than it was open, but with no posted hours. Today we were in the bakery, and Karen asked what the deal was with the grocer’s hours. The answer was, “She opens when she feels like it. She lives across the street. When we see her head toward the store, we rush over to buy what we need.”

A hike on the wild side the other day showed us all kinds of interesting things. A Green Mango hummingbird sitting on its nest. Karen is really good at spotting these things, then it is my job to get a photo.

Wild cotton plants

Like on many of the arid Caribbean islands, a spices of cotton grows wild here. Birds love using the fibers to build their nests. The problem is the nest which would be quite cryptic if built of other materials, stand out dramatically when made of the snow white cotton fibers.

We have now received our hard copy of the Harmonie’s official documentation for the coming year. So if the weather gods cooperate we will be heading off to St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands tomorrow.

Well… sort of!

I posted our first “real” video to YouTube this evening about our fishing experiences in this part of Puerto Rico.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing and hearing about our experiences.

At least some of the scenes are worth expanding to watch in full-screen mode.  You can see it here:

Putting it together was both fun and challenging.  I learned that video production is quite tough to do well.  There is SO much BAD video out there, I do not feel I needed to add to that dung heap!  I really want to hear from people about what they think I could do to make it better, and if they want to see more.