Heading Home 4/28

The van is already waiting for us as we finish our breakfast, so we quickly head up to the room to get all the luggage and then check out. The ride takes us back past Fat Hogs Bay, and we wave good bye again to Seabbatical, still sitting at the dock where we left her the day before.

While waiting in line at the airport, we are able to go up and weigh the luggage. Of course we are overweight on a couple of them. We planned ahead, and have a duffel ready to take the excess, so with some quick re-arranging we have all the bags under 50 pounds, and just one extra carry on.

Our flight to San Juan is on time, but because the airlines have changed schedules so many times since we booked, the connection is still a little tight. We have some added stress, when our porter mistakenly leaves the secure area with our bags, and we are stuck going through and agriculture screening, then back through main security, and then back to the main ticketing and check in lines. I am not happy that the guy turned what should have been an easy trip through customs/immigrations into this huge ordeal. After security, I have to run ahead to the gate. The kids are starving and Tracy stops to buy pizza to take onboard. I’m waiting at the gate, to make sure they don’t close the door or give our seats away, and they arrive at the final boarding call. We are fortunate that the flight is not full, and there is ample room for our carry-ons and even room for us to spread out a little in the first two rows.

The rest of the trip is uneventful, with plenty of time in Atlanta for dinner. In Detroit our limo is waiting for us, and miraculously all of our luggage arrives.

After another very long day, we are finally home!! The house seems huge (and cold)! It’s nearly midnight and we are all tired, but now have a surge of adrenaline, and no one wants to go to sleep. I have to re-light the hot water heater, and spend some time checking things out to make sure everything is still ok. The furnace is gradually heating the house, but it will be a chilly night, especially with our thin blood. Finally exhaustion catches up, and we get the kids up to bed.

This cruise is officially over. Its been something I have dreamed about for a lot of years, and its pretty special to actually realize it. It may not have been exactly as I imagined it and we certainly had our ups and downs, but overall  it was great!

Until the next adventure, so long from the Ross family, better known as the crew of Island Sol.

Mike, Tracy, Noah and Delaina Ross

April 28th, 2010

Tortola 4/27

Our last morning aboard Seabbatical.

It will be a busy day, so we are up early for breakfast. We hoist the dinghy and then quietly slip off the ball to shoot across the Drake channel to Fat Hogs Bay. Surprisingly there is no wind, so we just motor (slowly). Delaina says goodbye to one of her coconuts and sets it free.

We called David while motoring over, and he is waiting on the dock when we arrive at Fat Hogs Bay. We pull into a slip near the fuel pumps and top off the tanks. We start unloading gear, but there is another boat coming in for fuel, and we need to move to another spot. David moves the boat over, but its a tight fit and take three of us on the dock to pull lines to work him in. I’m actually glad I didn’t have to be at the wheel for this. The new spot is right up at the base of the dock, and makes unloading much easier. David has to leave to help out another boat, so we begin the unloading process and final cleaning. Even though we did a lot the night before, it’s still a lot of work. Its amazing how much hotter it feels here in the marina with no breeze. With the work done, we say our last goodbye to Seabbatical.

 

Soon the van arrives to take us over to Maries by the Sea, our hotel in Roadtown.  After the ride over in the hot van, the air conditioning in the hotel feels great. The kids don’t want to leave, but we’re hungry and I want to head over to the moorings base to check out the catamarans in brokerage.

We are able to tour a couple of 47’s, 43’s and 46’s. The 47 is exactly like seabbatical, with a slight larger swim platform. The 43, very similar just a little smaller. Before the cruise I thought the 43 would be our perfect boat. Its still high on the list, but they all pale in comparison to the 46. This is a great boat, with lots of room,a great layout, and  low beds that are easy to get in and out of. (don’t underestimate the importance of this!) We saw a lot of these cruising the BVI, but they all have at least one more year before coming out of charter. We will be watching closely to see where the prices are when they hit the market next June.

We have a quick dinner at the hotel, and make it an early night. We are all tired from a long day, and we have to leave early get to our flight.

Cooper Island 4/26

Its our last day here at the Scrub Island Marina. In the morning we take advantage of the hot tub and shower one last time, then prepare to shove off.

We leave the dock around noon and begin the short sail over to Cooper Island. We had visited this island during the first few days of the cruise. Noah liked it because he was able to take the kayak into shore for the first time.

The wind is forecast to be light overnight, so we choose a ball a ways offshore to get the most breeze. We are in 50’ of water, but can look straight down at the bottom. I am going to miss this amazingly clear water. We take the dinghy into shore, and the kids play on the beach for a couple of hours. Once back at the boat, we all jump in and take our final ceremonial swim around Seabbatical. The rest of the evening is spent packing and cleaning, as the reality that the cruise is ending sinks in.

Scrub Island Marina – Day 2 4/25

We start the day with a dip in the hot tub – what a change from what we have been doing for the last 2 months. Afterwards we have a great hike around the island. The road is well up the hill, and the views are great. There are only a half dozen or so houses here on the island, but signs of a few more ready to start construction.

After the walk, its back to the pool to cool off. Delaina has made friends with 2 of the flower girls from the wedding, so she has someone to play with. She even gets to enjoy a kiddie daiquiri from the pool bar.  After lunch, we take the dinghy across the bay to a snorkel site. There are a couple of mooring balls and a rope stretched between them to tie off to. Similar to what was at the baths.
The snorkeling is nice, but not great. We did see several small jelly fish. Not like the box jelly fish from the Baths, but small round ones the size of a golf ball. They were floating just below the surface, but did not seem to bother us.
We had a great dinner up on the patio, looking out over the water and to Marina Cay.

Scrub Island Marina 4-24

We start the day with a couple hours of school work, yippee. And I get to work on Delaina’s head, yippee. At around 10, we get ready to head across the bay to the Marina. The starboard engine fires up, and the alternator and water pump are working fine. I try to start the port engine – you have got to be kidding me. Nothing. It doesn’t even attempt to start. Back down into the engine room I go. Sure enough, the connector to the starter solenoid is off. I squeeze it down some with pliers and push it back on, and we are off and running. At this point I’m ready to dock the boat and not risk any more problems. A day on shore is just what we needed.

We motor the short distance over to the marina, hailing them as we approach for docking instructions. The Dock Master wants us stern to, so we head up the fairway slowly, and as we get close, walk the dinghy up to the starboard bow to keep it out of the way. Unfortunately, there are no boat channel cameras rolling, because the docking is a thing of beauty. God I love these twin engines! we spin the boat on a dime, and slide right into the port side tie up as smooth as can be. After tying up, we are briefed on the facilities. We get the bad news that the shower room and laundry will not be open for a couple more weeks.

We take a walk to check out the place, and then go check in at the office. Its nice enough that we decide to spend 2 days here instead of just one. The manager gives us a tour of the rooms – there are still a few units for sale in the main resort area, as well as some stand alone properties around the island. They are all nice, but not ready to buy just yet.

We change, and head for the pool. Its a great layout, with a walk in pool at the bottom level, complete with swim up bar and waterfall. Stairs lead up to the water slide and then on to the upper level pool and hot tub. The upper pool has an infinity edge, draining down into the water fall and into the lower pool. The view from the top pool is great, looking out over water. Being a new resort, the staff was small and still learning, so service left a bit to be desired, but soon we were enjoying a couple pina coladas in the deck chairs while the kids played on the slide and under the water fall.

There is a wedding in the main dining room, and we decide to have a simple meal on boat to stay away from that. Afterwards we walk up to one of the outdoor lounge areas. They have a big screen TV set up on a table, and one of the staff sets the kids up with “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.  He even brings out a bowl of popcorn for us.  A nice quiet end to the day.

Back to Trellis Bay 4-23

We start the day in Savannah (Tetor) bay, with some school work. So now everyone is in a great mood. We head out of the bay at around 10, winding back through the reef. The skies are a little clearer today, making it easier to read the depths. We are treating ourselves to a stay at the Scrub Island Resort/Marina. Its a brand new development that just opened a couple of months ago. With pools, waterslides, a swim up bar, and health club it will be quite a different experience than we’ve had the last couple of months. There is absolutely no wind as we motor away from virgin Gorda. I have never seen the water so flat and calm. (of course the calm water shows more debris, and the water looks a little less inviting.

About half way there, Tracy hears the stbd engine suddenly increase. She is pulling back on the throttle as the alarm starts sounding. We are over temp, and we quickly shut it down. My worst fear for the last couple of days is that an engine would blow up and we would be stuck dealing with that through the rest of our charter and likely beyond. I climb into the engine room and find the belt for the water pump shredded. We find some spare belts, and rather than try to dock with one engine I start trying to replace it.  The belt is not exactly the same, and it is a struggle to get on. We are now between Marina Cay and Scrub Island, so we grab a ball at MC while I make the last attempts to get the belt on, before deciding that the new belt is not going work. It is miserably hot, with no air moving at all, and the engine room is like an oven. Scrub Island has no parts or service yet, so I run in to Marina Cay to check there.  No luck, but the steer me to ‘Frenchy’, the ferry boat driver that just pulled in. He speaks in something of a cross between French and English, and after rummaging through his supply shed, I can understand enough to know that he has no belt, and the only place to get one would be back in Road Town. With that info, I go back out to Seabbatical and call David George to see if he can get us a belt. We are in luck, he is available and will meet us in Trellis Bay this afternoon. While not thrilled with the idea of going back to Trellis for a third time, this is going to be the best solution. As we start up the port engine to motor the short distance over to Trellis, it starts to rain. As we drop the mooring pennant, the port transmission starts its usual rumbling and vibration. It does this occasionally, and we need to shift it in and out of gear a couple of times to get it to smooth out. It first did this when getting a ball in Soper’s Hole way back at the beginning of the cruise. Ironically, we had only the one engine that time as well. So we are off the ball, the rain is now pouring down, and the port engine refuses to cooperate. The boat will not handle with one engine until we get some speed up, so I have no choice but to keep pushing it, while quickly shifting it in and out of gear. Now its the worst I have ever heard it. We finally have enough speed where I can maneuver through the moored boats, around the reef, and into open water. Once in the clear, we finally get the gears synced up properly and smoothly (and slowly) motor the couple of miles into trellis. Its still raining, and of course the wind has come up – right on the nose. Tracy thinks she spots a dolphin jump, which we take as a good omen.

We get in to Trellis, and grab a mooring ball without problem. The rain has mostly stopped, but it every few minutes we get a little more falling.  We call Scrub Island Marina and push our reservation back a day, and wait for David to come with the new belt. During one of the breaks in the rain, we go ashore just to get off the boat for a little while. David calls while we are on shore, so I leave Tracy and the kids, and run down to that end of the bay to pick him up and take him out to the boat. He has a belt that looks like a good match. While he works on that, I run back into shore to pick up the crew. They weren’t really ready to go back out to the boat, just waving hello. So we do what you do when in the Caribbean – sit down at De Loose Mongoose beach bar and have a Carib. (she even brings out a bowl of popcorn for Noah) Soon I see David out of the engine room, so I go out to see if he needs anything. He has it all done. The new belt works and we are all set. I drop David off at the far dock, and then go back to the Mongoose. The kitchen doesn’t open until 6:30, so its back out to the boat. The rain is done, but like our last trip to Trellis, everything is still soaked and seems like it will never dry. We are sitting in the cockpit when Delaina fumbles the chapstick and it bounces towards the back of the boat. I spring into action to save it, of course the wet deck is like a sheet of ice. Whoooops! My feet go flying in the air, I take one hard bounce and slide the remaining few feet right off the back of the boat. Thankfully, there are no silly charterers around to see this as I crawl out of the water and take my 5th shower of the day.

Noah has talked non-stop about the great Mahi sandwich he got at De Loose Mongoose on our very first day, so we head back in for dinner. Guess what he orders – chicken nuggets. Sometimes I just don’t get it. Back at the boat we discover that Delaina’s head has overflowed. We pump it out, making sure its properly set to dry. It seems ok, but later in the night Delaina wakes to find it overflowing again. There seems to be a disturbing pattern of things starting to break down.

Savannah Bay 4-22

Over night we come up with a plan for at least a couple of days. We are going to make one more run at the Baths (hopefully without jellyfish this time) and then try to go into Savannah Bay for the night. Andy Winson had told us how nice this bay is, but the cruising guide warns that it should be a day anchorage only due to the winter swells. We are hopeful that with the calm water, it will be ok for the night. The snorkeling is supposed to be great there.

We arrive at the Baths, just as 2 other cats come in at full throttle and then some to try to beat us in to the balls. There are none available, but the jokes on them. As they cut us off and speed by (through the anchorage at full speed) we spy someone getting ready to leave at the opposite end and are able to easily move in and grab it. We are at the north end of the bay, right up against the boulders. We take a quick snorkel around the rocks behind the boat to cool down. There are lots of fish and coral on the sides of the rocks.

No sign of jellyfish this time, and we have a great time going through the deep water to reach some of the best caves and grottos. There are some large swells rolling in, surprising because of the lack of wind for a couple of days, and the water is crashing in through the rocks adding to the fun. After a good swim at Devils Bay, and a few jumps off the big rock we head back through the trail for the final time.

Savannah Bay is only a couple of miles to the north on Virgin Gorda, so we motor up and wind our way through the reef  and into the bay. There is one other boat anchored inside. Once inside, its deeper than the guide book suggests, ranging from 30-40 feet in most places. It starts to shallow up some as we approach the other boat. They are anchored in a rocky/coral area that doesn’t look good to us. We push on to the sandy portion of the bay and the depth drops quickly to 10’-12’. We head out some, and drop anchor in about 20 feet of water. What little wind that’s blowing is from the south, holding the boat parallel to the reef, and broadside to the swells rolling over it. We try to make some lunch, but its quickly obvious that this is not going to work here. Further up the bay, and around the point is an area called Tetor Bay. We can see the sandy ground inside the reef, and the swells to not look as bad. So we haul up the anchor and move over there. Its all shallow here, staying right at about 10’. The anchorage is small, only room for one boat to swing in the area inside the reef. The waves are crashing over the reef, but the swells are not coming through and rocking the boat.

From here we are able to snorkel the reef between us and shore. This is a great spot, with lots of coral. Delaina spots a sand dollar back under the boat and we dive down to pick it up on the way back in. We are feeling pretty snug here, surrounded by the reef. There is still no wind, and we are being held in place by just the chain, never stretching it all the way to the anchor. At sunset, we suddenly get a shift in the wind that puts back of the boat facing the outer reef and into the worst area of swells. Its still not bad though. We start up the engines, and back down hard in this direction to make sure the anchor is completely dug in, and that with the chain fully stretched this way, there is still room behind us to the reef. With that done, we settle in, listening to the sound of crashing waves all around us. The moon is about half full, and the breaking waves glow in the moonlight. Like the other night in Culebrita, its very cool here, but a little eerie with the reef so close.  The wind swings all night long, but its very light so no real concerns about the anchor pulling out. In the morning the GPS plot looks like a spiro-graph. We spent the whole night swinging around in circles in the light, swirly winds.

Peter Island 4-21

The wind was shifty, but light overnight. Even though we pointed in about every direction, we had no anchor problems and plenty of swinging room with the boats on moorings. Noah and I make a quick run into Bobby’s Market to pick up a few extra supplies. Every time I think that this will be the last trip to the market, but hopefully this really will be. We are down to less than a week left and it seems like we have a lot of food. Today’s run is mostly for snacks and a couple of limes (the important stuff).

The kids want to swim on shore again, so we make a quick run in and sit on the beach. Its pretty quiet, but already the steady stream of cruise ship passengers are starting to flow in. On the way back out Tracy takes a turn running the dinghy, and tries to kill me by heading straight under the boat at high speed. Its only day 49.

The night before, we ran into our friends from Culebra. They had stayed in Great Harbor on Peter Island, and mentioned that they have some floating climbing toys for the kids. Since we have never been to Great Harbor, this sounded like a good plan. We are winging it for the rest of our trip, with no real agenda. The wind is going to be too light to head up to Anegada so it frees up a few days here in the BVI.

We sail through Thatch Island cut at the west end of Tortola, and then on to Peter. The wind is dyeing as we enter the harbor. There’s a small beach resort, with an Iceberg climbing float and a large floating trampoline. The kids are very happy to see this! The harbor is very deep – over 50’ right up to shore, so not a good place to anchor so we grab a mooring ball right off the beach. As we are tying up, we see a very large ray swim by just below the surface. Prior to this, all the rays we have seen have been on the bottom, not the ‘flying’ rays. Noah launches the kayak so he and Delaina can go explore. Tracy and I sit and relax, and then dinghy in when they are ready to start swimming and using the toys.

The Iceberg is the highest we have ever seen. The kids have a great time climbing, sliding, and jumping. For a while we are the only ones on the beach, then another group of kids comes over to join the fun. A ‘cattlemaran’ also arrives with a crowd of people too.

 

We have a very relaxing afternoon, swimming and kayaking. Noah hooks up with 2 other boys his age, and they have fun climbing and jumping on the iceberg. (although the jumping stopped when they saw a big barracuda swim under the float.) Noah stays to play longer with the boys, and we dinghy back out to the boat. We are cooking up our latest Spanish mackerel catch for round 2 of fish tacos. Its going to be another warm night, as there is barely a breath of air moving. Quite a change from the first 6 weeks when the trades blew steady.

Cane Garden Bay 4-20

Cloudy and drizzling again this morning. The clouds are hanging over the hills, which is cool, but we are ready to get back to the desert isles of the BVI!

With no real reason to go to shore, we haul up the anchor and start motor sailing in very light wind towards Jost Van Dyke. Its about 12 miles, or a little over 2 hours sail to get there. We pull into Great Harbor a little after noon. Surprisingly there are no balls open, so we find a good spot to drop the hook and then wait until 1pm to make sure the customs office would be open. Of course, as I walk in the agent is just starting his lunch. I fill out the main form, then have to buy 4 customs forms ($0.40) for each of us. When all the forms are completed I get grilled about when we left the BVI. He wants to see the papers from clearing out, which of course I didn’t bring. It was five weeks and five countries ago, why does he need this. He asks me how much I paid to leave and I told him it was something like $6. ‘Where’s the receipt?’ he asks, ‘why wouldn’t you keep that?’. ‘Where’s your cruising permit?’ was his next question. I tell him I just arrived and need to buy one. ‘No, the one from when you were here before’ he says. I tell him its expired, but I’m sure its back on the boat. Now the second agent that’s been going through the custom forms has my passport and see the stamp from when we left. I think this should be good enough, but agent number one tells me I have to go get my cruising permit and look for the receipt. There is no sense arguing, so I head back out in the dinghy. I actually find the paperwork from clearing out 5 weeks ago and the original cruising permit. Now the agent is all smiles. He stamps our passports and $67 later we walk out with our cruising permit, once again legally checked in to the BVI. At the boat I need a quick dip to cool down.

We make the short run over to Cane Garden Bay. There are several mooring balls open, but with light winds forecast, we find a quiet spot to anchor in the southern part of the bay. The kids had wanted ice cream at Great Harbor, but it was closed. So we go back in to the beach and head for the Big Banana. Oh yeah, they happen to serve Bushwhacker's there along with the ice cream. While sitting on the deck, we start chatting with the couple next to us. They have just arrived, and are on their way to Scrub Island for a wedding. Their friends that are getting married  have recently bought a 46’ Fountain Pajot cat, and they are considering an extended cruise.

The kids swim and we start heading down the beach towards Myetts. There was a good singer there the last time that started at 5. He was there again, so we camp out front while the kids swim. We end up staying for dinner there as well. Since it doesn’t look like we will make it up to Anegada, I order up a local grilled lobster. Its good, but I always like the idea of lobster better than the lobster itself. Noah and Delaina go out to dance to Mustang Sally while we finish up with dinner. Noah befriends the singer (Brian Hill, I think) and we chat with him after dinner.