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Sailing with Delphinus

Sailing with Delphinus

Tag Archives: BVI

The Virgin Islands

20 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by krdavenport in Uncategorized

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BVI, Delphinus, US Virgin Islands

American Yacht Harbor

American Yacht Harbor

Pete and I arrived in St. Thomas to find Delphinus safe and snug at the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook. The marina is a bustling place with lots of boats coming and going, and restaurants and shops lining the waterfront – everything geared toward the American tourist.

Dinner with Friends

Dinner with Friends

We caught up with our friends Bernie and Sherron Wahl, who arrived on the s/v Ballerina the day before we arrived. Pete’s first Caribbean 1500 was with Bernie about 10 years ago. The two have kept in touch over the years. We all enjoyed pizza and cold beer at the Island Time Pub, with a great view of the harbor, with Anthony, a crew member of Ballerina’s trip from Grenada, and James, our crew member.

After a couple of days of engine work and provisioning, we departed St. Thomas for Caneel Bay in St. John. Here we returned to the enjoyment and peace and quiet on a mooring ball in the harbor. We took a whole day and did nothing but read and relax. Ahh..back to the life of a cruiser. Caneel Bay is the site of a former sugar plantation and the ruins have been incorporated into a very nice resort.

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We soon discovered that this is the rainy season here. The good news is that most of the rain comes during the night and early morning. The bad news is there is a hatch over my side of our bunk which we keep open to catch those nice breezes. Most nights I woke up after dreaming about water being sprayed in my face only to realize it was raining again. Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for being in paradise.

Rainbow over Caneel Bay

Rainbow over Caneel Bay

Butterfly Escort

Butterfly Escort

Next, we headed for Road Town in British Virgin Islands to catch up with a mechanic who will look at the port engine. As we entered British waters we acquired an escort of small yellow butterflies. They flitted all around the boat, rarely landing, and we continued to encounter them throughout the US and British Virgin Islands.

Fort Burt Marina

Fort Burt Marina

We stayed at the Fort Burt Marina, which turns out to be the home of Conch Charters, the company we chartered from 10 years ago. The Pub is still operating at the dock, which was the first place we tried conch fritters. Our son Brendan enjoyed them so much he tried them everywhere else we went in the BVI and became something of a conch fritter critic by the end of that charter trip. Pete and I stopped in this trip for old times sake.

Pete at The Pub

Pete at The Pub

 

 

 

 

Finishing Install

Finishing Install

As I’ve written before, the definition of cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places. In addition to the port engine issues that are now fixed, we had to replace the wind transducer (at the top of the mast) and run a new cable down through the mast. Here is Pete making the final connections at the base of the mast. The space he folded himself into actually under the settee in the salon. I think it took him longer to get himself into and out of that space than to make the final connections.

Trellis Bay

Trellis Bay

Our next stop in the BVI was Trellis Bay. The community there is somewhat of an artists colony. There is a large shop featuring the works of the local artisans and produce from organic farmers. We had lunch at the de Loose Mongoose, where Pete tried Roti, a West Indian curry stew served with a large wrap. It seems to be quite popular in the local restaurants.

 

Sunset

Sunset on Trellis Bay

Yost Van Dyke

Jost Van Dyke

Next we made the obligatory party stop in Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke. This harbor is the home Corsairs Bar and Grill (best restaurant in the BVIs) and Foxy’s Bar (a favorite spot for cruisers). We enjoyed a great lunch at Corsairs, which looks more like a sailor/biker bar. The food was delicious.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that the cruising community really is small. As we were returning to Delphinus from lunch on shore we were flagged down by a couple in another dinghy. We were delighted to see it was John and Jennifer Stallings from s/v Noel’s Delight. We originally met them in Emerald Bay in the Bahamas and then again in the marina when we limped into Southport, NC with our broken dinghy davit. We spent a fun afternoon swapping stories over cold beers followed by great wings and rum punch at Foxy’s. We hope to catch up again soon as we are both planning to head further south.

Sunset

Sunset

We headed back to US territory again and cleared customs in Cruz Bay, St. John. Unfortunately, we arrived right behind two ferry boats and had a long line to wait in. After lunch and grocery shopping we pulled up anchor and made our way to Francis Bay. This area and most of St. John are part of the US National Park Service (NPS), so the natural beauty is preserved.

Near Francis Bay is a partially restored sugar plantation, Annaberg Sugar Plantation, dating from the late 1700s. Look for the blocks of carved brain coral used in the doorway pictured below. As beautiful as the location is, I can’t imagine that the slaves who labored there found any joy in their surroundings.

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Arched Doorway

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Windmill Ruins

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View from Annaberg

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also stopped into Coral Bay, another eclectric artists community, located on the east side of St. John. It is one of the few places that allow anchoring so there are many live aboard sailors there. One entrepreneur built a floating bar in the middle of the harbor. There are small herds of goats that roam the community freely, keeping the grassy areas neatly trimmed.

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Shop Sign

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Goats Keeping the Park Neat

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Floating Bar

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to Francis Bay and used the dinghy to explore the surrounding bays. Cinnamon Bay hosts a NPS campground, complete with small cabins, platform tents and a beautiful beach.

We snorkeled along a marked underwater trail on Trunk Bay (also maintained by the NPS). Another beautiful beach with lots of people visiting for the day.

Trunk Bay 12 Trunk Bay 6 Trunk Bay 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I finish writing this we are back in Red Hook getting Delphinus ready to rest while we head home for Christmas. We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends again and celebrating the holidays together.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the crew of Delphinus!

Stay tuned and stay in touch.

 

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Caribbean Bound

29 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by krdavenport in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

BVI, Caribbean 1500, Delphinus, USVI

This post is Pete’s log of his journey from Portsmouth, VA to Tortola, British Virgin Islands:

Our Caribbean cruise began at 0639 on November 11, 2015. Delphinus crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, passed Cape Henry lighthouses and entered the Atlantic Ocean for the 1400 mile sail to the British Virgin Islands. On board was Captain Pete and crew: Ron Fox, James Dylewski and Bob Alexander. We were in the company of 32 other sailboats participating in the World Cruising Club’s (WCC) Caribbean 1500 and ARC Bahamas rallies.

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Cape Henry Lighthouses

We encountered some interesting weather along the way – winds varying from 6 to 50 knots, seas as high as 12 feet and waves coming from two or three directions at the same time. Delphinus and her crew handled these conditions very well, sailing at common speeds of seven to eight knots, with spurts at 10 to 13 knots.

Some items needed repair, but none that affected seaworthiness. We had a continuing problem with the port engine eating starter motors two day out. So the starboard engine was the primary propulsion in light winds. We will focus on electrical issues and potential hydrolock issues with the port engine when we return after Thanksgiving at home.

We did enjoy some recreation during the trip. We fished quite often but due to our sailing speeds we didn’t have much luck. We caught a small (less than three pounds) false Albacore that we threw back. We lost a sizeable Mahi as we were landing it – but he bit through the leader and was free before we could gaff him. On the next to last day at sea we caught a 15 pound Mahi that provided two wonderful meals for the crew.

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Bob Filets Dinner

We encountered several large ships along the way. Our closest approach was less than half a mile from a tanker heading to Spain. It’s common to have boats pass within 20 miles or so. We can see their Automatic Identification System (AIS) identifiers on our chart plotter, and we pay a lot of attention to the closest point of approach (CPA) to avoid getting too close.

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A Tanker at Sea

The trip took 8 1/2 days to complete, ending just before midnight on November 19, 2015 in Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola, BVI. We were greeted by the WCC staff and provided with celebratory rum punches after getting Delphinus tied up. The crew picture below (from left to right): Captain Pete, Bob Alexander (Seaford, VA), Ron Fox (Yorktown, VA) and James Dylewski (Erie, PA).

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Delphinus’ Crew

Below is the tracker showing the course we traveled. Our course didn’t follow the rhumb line (the red line) due to winds. Our course is the lighter line. To ensure we got closer to BVI we sailed on a beam reach as we encountered the east trade winds that start about 300 miles north of the Virgin Islands.

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Course Tracker

The morning after arriving we enjoyed breakfast at the marina restaurant – eggs, bacon, omelets, brewed coffee, etc. The first order of business after breakfast was rinsing and washing Delphinus to remove the crusted salt (yes, salt crystals do build up) from the deck and rigging. Getting showers at the marina and a relaxing afternoon of small chores followed.

Friday evening we enjoyed a happy hour sponsored by the WCC and dinner with crews of other boats. Many stories about weather, equipment, breakdowns, fishing and meals were shared and enjoyed. There were boats from Great Britain, Canada, Belgium and New Zealand participating in the rally. New friendships were made and old ones refreshed.

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Delphinus

On Saturday morning we left Nanny Cay for a quick stop at St. Johns Island, US Virgin Islands to check in with US Customs. Our next stop was American Yacht Harbor Marina in Red Hook Bay on St. Thomas, USVI, where we left Delphinus and Pete returned home for Thanksgiving.

While in Red Hook, Pete noticed a boat that we had chartered 10 years ago – Clewless. This boat was our first family charter vacation with both kids. It was a memorable family vacation that we still enjoy reminiscing about.

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Clewless

Next week we’ll return to Delphinus, meet up with old friends Bernie and Sherron Wahl (s/v Ballerina) in Red Hook, explore the US Virgin Islands for a few days, check back into the British Virgin Islands for a while and then head back home for Christmas.

Stay tuned and stay in touch!

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