British Virgin Islands

May 2nd - May 15th

We found out that the shipment of Sulmar back to the UK would be delayed by 10 days, so we decided to visit all the places that we had not had a chance to see so far. On May 2nd, we sailed, from Great Harbour on Peter Island, past the Indians and Pelican Island to The Caves. We snorkelled around the caves for a while before picking up a buoy in The Bight, a large sheltered bay on Norman Island. We went to the infamous Willy T for dinner. The William Thornton is a replica topsail lumber schooner which is now a bar/restaurant known for riotous partying. We were very well behaved, but our dinghy obviously got carried away with the party atmosphere. We awoke the following morning to find it upturned and the outboard engine completely submerged.

We returned to Soper's Hole and Robin spent the next day stripping the engine down. We stayed there another few days checking emails, doing laundry and other necessaties. We walked to the other side of Frenchman's Cay and got great views of the Francis Drake Channel. We sailed on to Little Harbour on Jost Van Dyke. We had dinner in Sydney's Peace and Love Bar and the following day, we walked up the hill. We found flowering cacti in excess of 3 meters in height. The flowers last for three years and then they are used as Christmas trees throughout the BVI.

As we were preparing to leave Little Harbour, a pair of dolphins swam around the boat. These are the first dolphins we have seen in the Caribbean, so we felt quite priveledged when they came right up to the bow. We sailed around the north of Tortola and to the north of Great Camanoe to have a look at the amazing cliffs (Can you make out the man's face below?) and a few more famous landmarks including 'Wash Bollocks Point' and 'Throw Way Wife Bay'. We spent that night at Marina Cay and snorkelled on the reef the following day. We spent the following night at Trellis Bay, making another visit to 'The Last Resort' on Bellamy Cay.

We made another visit to North Sound, Virgin Gorda. We took a taxi from Leverick Bay over the mountains to Spanish town. The views of the whole Francis Drake Channel were stunning. We also spent a night at Saba Rock. Saba Rock is a tiny island, at the western end of North Sound, which has its own desalination plant. It is the only place in the Caribbean where we have been supplied with free water and free ice! We had a great meal and enjoyed their steel band.

April 17th - May 1st

After Graeme and Sally left, we met another another boat from Troon in Soper's Hole. It turned out that Ian and Betty of 'Bonnie of Clyde' were planning to head to Bermuda at around the same time as 'Matata', so we put them in touch with each other. A few days later, we said goodbye to Bill and Shian on 'Matata' at Sandy Cay. They were having a last swim before heading off. We were able to talk to 'Matata' and 'Bonnie of Clyde' on the SSB every evening all the way to Bermuda and keep up with their progress. We sailed along the north coast of Tortola to Cane Garden Bay. The steep slopes are covered in lushous rainforest, a huge contrast to the scrub vegetation on the rest of the BVI.

The following day, we negotiated the passage between the reefs off Little Camanoe and Beef Island and went to Trellis Bay. We explored the shores of Beef Island, had lunch in de Loose Mongoose and went to look at Gli Gli, the largest Carib Indian digout sailing canoe. On a mooring buoy close-by, a motor cruiser got into some difficulty while lowering their dinghy. It toppled off it's davits and sent the contents of the dinghy, including a very startled woman, into the drink. Robin did great heroics rescueing a lifejacket that had floated off across the bay. Later in the day, he was called on again, this time a beach ball for a tearful 6 year old.

The following day, we went back to North Sound to meet up with Mike and Tass on 'Merlin'. We also walked Guy's Trail from Bitter End to Biras Creek. We got fabulous views of North Sound and of the reefs on the eastern approaches. We had lunch at the Fat Virgin Cafe and walked back along the coast. We saw lots of large Iguanas. We discovered that they are very fond of hibiscus flowers and will come running up to you, at incredible speed, if they think you will pick some for them.

The next day, we headed back to Peter Island to meet up with John and Linda on 'Magic Dragon'. We anchored in Great Harbour, Peter Island for a couple of days. The resident pelican colony were great fun to watch. The fish are so abundant here, the pelicans hardly have to dive at all to catch their supper. The snorkelling was also very good.

We said goodbye to 'Magic Dragon'' as they began their passage north to Chesapeake.

April 6th - April 17th

On April 6th, we took a ferry to St Thomas, USVI, to pick up Graeme and Sally. Unfortunately, one day after they arrived, we had 30 knot winds and rain for the following three days. After going up to Marina Cay and being unable to get ashore in the dinghy, we sheltered in Village Cay Marina, in Road Town, for two days before going to Trellis Bay. Bellamy Cay, a small island in the middle Trellis Bay was a place we had long wanted to visit, as Bellamy Cay was Robin's father's name. The island is home to 'The Last Resort', a restaurant which has great food and a hilarious cabaret act including a donkey and 'singing' dogs.

When the weather finally picked up, we went back to Drakes Anchorage, North Sound, Virgin Gorda and did lots of snorkelling. With Sally and Graeme's help, we cleaned all the worm coral and barnacles off the bottom of the boat. This has made a phenomenal difference to our speed. However, our resident crab, who has lived at the top of our rudder post for the last three months, was most upset at the demise of his habitat!

After a couple of days in North Sound, we visited The Baths, a most unusual formation of granite boulders. The sea washes between the rocks forming large pools and incredible blow holes. Large cacti grow all around the boulders. We walked the trail in between the rocks to Devil's Bay. The beach here is one of the nicest in the BVI, with soft white sand and crystal clear water. After lunch, we sailed to Little Harbour, Peter Island.

The following day, we sailed to Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, and had dinner in the famous Foxys. Robin once again found a four legged friend he wanted to smuggle on board. The following day, we anchored behind Green Cay for lunch and had a snorkel, before returning to Soper's Hole on Tortola, for Sally and Graeme to get the ferry to St Thomas.

March 30th - April 6th

We left Sint Maarten on the evening of March 29th and sailed overnight to Virging Gorda. We made good use of the two remaining hours of daylight to get out into deep water and avoid the hundreds of lobster pots and fish traps. There was hardly any wind, but with very flat seas, we still made good time and arrived in North Sound, Virgin Gorda shortly after sunrise. We spent the day relaxing in Drakes Anchorage, just inside Colquhoun Reef. The following day, we moved across the Sound to the Bitter End Yacht Club. We found a large iguana basking in the sun as we explored ashore. This yacht club provides free nightly movies, so we watched 'Matrix'. The next day we went back across the sound to Leverick Bay, sailing past Robin's Bay. We made use of their swimming pool and sampled a few cocktails during happy hour in the Lighthouse Bar.

We sailed to Road Town, Tortola, and spent a night in Village Cay Marina. David Jones, the Caribbean weather forecaster is based here, so we took the opportunity to visit him. It was really interesting to see his setup as we have tuned in every morning while we have been in the Caribbean. He also showed us a great thermal image of the underwater volcano, just north of Grenada.

The following day, we met up with Bill and Shian on 'Matata' in Little Harbour on Peter Island. They invited us to go racing with them in the BVI Spring Regatta, so we took Sulmar to Soper's Hole, Tortola ready to meet Graeme and Sally in two days time and had a great day racing on Matata.