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.