May19-21 British Virgin Islands

In this part of the world, all the islands are within eyesight of each other and very short sails. On Monday, 5-19 we head over to the BVI to spend my birthday in White Bay, Jost Van Dyke. We make a quick stop at Great Harbour to check in with customs and immigration. We take a quick walk around the beach town, visit a hammock but decide to blow off Foxy’s bar which is highly overrated in our opinion. The last time we were here, Foxy was drunk and railing against white oppression….the same oppressors who run up huge bar tabs at his wildly popular bar.
We scoot over to White Bay, known for the Soggy Dollar Bar, named as such for boaters swimming up with wet money and also home of the “painkiller”, a rum, fruit juice and nutmeg concoction. The BVIs are ever more popular now as a bareboat charter destination. There are boats everywhere and the bays are almost covered in mooring balls, leaving precious little real estate in which to anchor. Even so, the captains (Craig and Ross) find a spot and we tuck in for the night. We have adult swim, this episode complimented by jello shots that Fran made for the birthday celebration. After a quick run over to the Soggy Dollar, We return to S/V Hakuna Matata for champagne and steaks. Fortunately, the boys drank beer so the girls had the champagne to themselves….
We take off for Sandy Spit (of Corona beer commercial fame) and proceed to Cane Garden Bay for a relaxed evening on the boat. We discovered a leaky fitting on a propane tank when we were changing over to the spare so now have a priority repair. We will head around the corner to Road Town. Many charter boat companies run out of this harbour so there are marine outfitters who should have the parts we need.

Approach to Cane Garden Bay:

Sandy Spit and White Harbour:

The hammock scene at Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke:

This morning, Thursday 5-21, we parted with S/V Pacific Quest. They will tour other parts of the BVI as we stop in Road Town for repairs and then proceed to Beef Island to pick up Craig's sister who arrives Saturday. We hope to catch up with them down island. Thirty minutes out of the anchorage, we smell hot/electrical and see smoke, quickly followed by the cacophony of fire alarms. And I thought the squall was scary...try being in 100 feet of water under full sail and see smoke billowing out of the engine room fan. As our Aussie/Kiwi friends say: BUGGERS!! (my new favorite word of disappointment...so much nicer than the usual). Fortunately, no fire. Unfortunately, alternator burned to a crisp. Fortunately, spare on board. Unfortunately, mounts and belt with the spare do not fit. Fortunately, Craig an expert at engineering and can fabricate mounts from the magic bag. What is the magic bag, you ask? A magical bag of "stuff", the bowels from which my captain can retrieve kinky things and fix anything. And I mean anything, even if it means that the boat goes from tidy/ship-shape to nightmare faster than you can load up a Buffett CD...

So, we are glad to be in Road Town, where we hope the chandlery has propane fittings and a referral to an alternator re-build shop. We remember that the definition of cruising is repairing one's boat in exotic locations....these things are frustrating but it is still ALL GOOD!!