Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Glorious!

You would think that we get in plenty of sailing, what… with living on a sailboat and all… But this is not the case.  Can you ever really get enough sailing???  No.  

Our Buddy Boat wanted to take their guest to see The Baths, on Virgin Gorda.  We’ve been there so many times and the conditions today weren’t optimal… so after a quick pow-wow over the VHF, we waved our friends goodbye-for-now as they pulled up the anchor and motored off in the direction of Gorda.  















While we… WE… set our sails and turned OFF then engine!  They would go right over and enjoy their time seeing the sights, while we spent our morning sailing upwind to meet them when they were done.  And sail we did!  It was GLORIOUS!  


















Bruce worked hard to give us a comfortable ride with double reefed mainsail and staysail… but the racer in him wanted more speed… all morning long he tweaked and trimmed, then took the wheel and actually steered the boat, instead of letting the autopilot do it.  We were sailing!  

Eventually he shook out a reef and got us going a little bit faster, added to that was the fact that we broke free of the wind shadow from Virgin Gorda, our speed was nice and our ride was smooth!  


















Must make sure our Princess is comfortable...
Jezabelle just slept right through it all, with the exception of a snack or two along the way…


It didn’t matter how fast we were going or how long our tack was… we played the lifts and the knocks and it was GLORIOUS!

Big upwind tacks followed by a downwind sleigh ride!  What a day!


Eventually we got close to the Baths and started trying to reach AU2 by VHF.  They didn’t answer so we poked along the shore and found a gorgeous spot to drop anchor and have some lunch.  The beach was beautiful and the water glowed beneath us, we could have stayed the night…  

But just after we got the hook down, AU2 hailed us and we decided to move to Lee Bay, Great Camanoe to avoid the swell…  Less than an hour later the sails were once again providing us with a magic carpet ride… this time, downwind!



Bruce went onto the foredeck and put away the staysail so his work would be done upon arrival to one of our favorite anchorages in the BVI…



We were neck-and-neck with Adventure US 2 for a while as we neared the narrow pass to our destination and they dropped back to follow.

I experienced my usual anxiety about getting a good spot as I saw a catamaran bearing down on us… I pushed the engine a little more, and hugged the coast to shorten our distance until I was sure that the catamaran was headed elsewhere…  In the end, there was only one boat anchored in the cove… pretty much where my marked spot is…  but there’s  plenty of room.  
Rounding the corner for the final stretch!

The catamaran went the other way... plenty of room for all!

We dropped the hook and settled in for a relaxed evening reliving our GLORIOUS day on the water.  No need to hurry, we have all day tomorrow to play!

N18°28.241
W064°32.070


Lee Bay is very sheltered from wave action unless the swell is from the north.  We had our doubts about a slight NE swell but our night was gentle and serene…



AU2 decided to move on to Cane Garden Bay a day early and left us mid-morning.

With the entire day stretching before us, we decided to re-create our first time here and kayak out to find our cave!  It’s funny how differently we remembered it in our mind’s eye… For a while we wondered if perhaps the rocks had fallen and our cave was now gone!








The size of these rocks and our memory were just completely off but eventually we found the spot… It looked MUCH lower than we remembered and the river-rock ravine seemed smaller…  Until we beached the kayak and started climbing around.

I scrambled up the rocky ledge and sat, Bruce followed.  We just sat there for some time and enjoyed the stunning scene at our feet.



















We are so fortunate… and it’s times like this when we realize it anew…  

















Our cave is over there...

So are we going to climb up to our cave again?  Let’s go!  We picked our way across the rocks that once again, looked much bigger when we got over there… It was like being a Barbie doll crossing a child’s floor strewn with toys!  

The sun came out and we began to get sweaty… whoa, wait!  I looked up to the cave and then back at Bruce.  Do we really need to do this again?  We’ve been there… and it’s getting hot… Maybe we can just rest on our laurels and skip it!  Bruce really didn’t want to do all of this strenuous stuff anyway so he was easy to convince. 
















Water rushes in...
We turned back and with one more adventure… figuring out how to get ourselves into our kayak and our kayak back off this shore…  The waves kept coming and coming, but with a little patience, we learned that there were sets of larger waves, then smaller ones.  Timing it perfectly, we were able to get going with minimal disruption to our dignity.

Water rushes out... Get onto the kayak NOW!!!

I KNEW there was a sliver of beach over here!!!
Not quite ready to return to the boat… we headed for the beach.  I had remembered a strip of sand here but you couldn’t really see it from the boat.  As we got closer we saw that it was there… It’s impossible to explain how much bigger this place is than it looks!
Home

Watching Pelicans dive for fish is one of our favourite pastimes!



We spent a pleasant hour or so enjoying the cool water and the setting sun before returning to the boat for another GLORIOUS Sunset followed by a peaceful night.  Lee Bay remains near the top of our favorite anchorages.

1 comment:

  1. Enjoyed reading! Thanks for sharing your experiences! I like your day better than mine! lol

    ReplyDelete