The High Life in the British Virgin Islands

Torbin and Judy (Tivoli) invited us over to Great Camanoe Island to share lunch. They have some friends from the Bay area that have a winter house on the hill within Indigo Plantation. Aptly named as it used to be a plantation that grew indigo.  Indigo was prized for making blue dye. The island’s use apparently goes back to the 1600’s and the Dutch West India Company. Above is the view from the deck over looking Lee Bay.
It is an island style house to die for, with high ceilings, slow ceiling fans and windows and doors that open to all the breezes. No A/C or heater needed here.

The sliding barn doors open to the kitchen where Ricky is busily working on the lunch BBQ prep.

Georgia safely anchored behind the Marina Cay reef while we play on the island.

There’s that cute couple again

Ricky (honorable son), Judy and Torben. It was fun to meet Ricky, as he has just gotten off an intense work period. Ricky graduated  with a degree in mechanical engineering and through some fortuitous planning and luck, he landed a job working on the Oracle team America’s cup entry. Lots of of interesting technical stories. Ricky is now intimately familiar with titanium and saving grams of weight. He’s, hopefully, headed to grad school and wants to be ready for the next Cup.

Island flowers

These flowers just didn’t look like they had real colors. Turns out they mark someone's driveway and are plastic. Not everyone has island class.

We headed off to Monkey Point for some morning snorkeling.

These two girls decided to dress entirely different for ball.

There were a lot of pelicans roosting near by. These fry are what they were snacking on.

Another fancy dresser. The trunk fish are not very skittish. They almost pose.

This lobster was trying to decide if my camera would make a good meal or if it was a mortal threat.

A blue tang town meeting, think Dorrie in ‘Finding Nemo’. “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming, swim, swim,swim, swim…”

Paul

Abandoned Boat Recovered Off Anegada

SV Scat with Tortola in the background

Breaking up the boredom while hanging out in Anegada, we heard some VHF radio traffic this morning between the fishing vessel Pelagic and the US Coast Guard, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
This is Pelagic towing in the abandoned sailboat Scat (reportedly a Southern Cross 32). The boat has been floating around for the last month(since Nov 3rd) after being abandoned 400 miles north of Puerto Rico for a medical emergency.
The Winnipeg, Canada, based owner was apparently severely dehydrated and was picked up by a cargo vessel after contacting the CG. When the vessel got about 200 miles off Puerto Rico, the owner was airlifted from the ship to a San Juan hospital. The CG was going to notify him this morning that his boat is now anchored in Settlement Harbor on Anegada – and probably has a decent sized salvage bill awaiting. Other than a broken boom, the boat looks in remarkably good shape. The solar panels have kept the batteries up, as the bilge pump was still pumping.
These ghost ships  are not something you want to run into at 3am.
Paul

Anegada Island

For those enjoying slush in the Pacific Northwest

We spent a few days over on Anegada Island. Its the only coral island in the BVIs, as opposed to the volcanic islands of the rest of the British Virgin Islands. The trade winds had finally calmed down a bit, giving us a great beam reach sail over – we did the 15 miles in a couple of hours. The anchorage is a little rolly, with some strange swell getting in.  But I guess we need something to complain about.

We rented car with the crew of Terrapin and Skylark (sans dogs) to circumnavigate the island by road.  Here’s the path to the beach at Loblolly Bay on the NE shore of the island. The reefs are far better on this side, than on the leeward side where we are anchored.

A photogenic box fish.

The restaurant at Loblolly with some long-hair walking past.

Monica, the owner of the restaurant. She’s an import from Trinidad and has adjusted to the small island living on Anegada, as compared to the big island, big city living of Port of Spain, Trinidad. She goes back each year Aug, Sept, Oct, during the slow season here. Good food, good hospitality, not cheap. Actually nothing in the BVIs is cheap.

Flamingo Spotting

The pink guys way off in the distant mangrove swamps along the salt pond.

We stopped at the bakery on the way back. This is the first time we’ve seen Lion fish on the menu. These are non-native, very aggressive fish that are overtaking the reefs in many places around the Caribbean. Even they aren’t cheap.

Unidentified purdy flower

Sunrise over Anegada Island

Paul